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Lying Makes The Brain Work Harder

Posted by timothy on from the what-if-you're-just-thinking-about-lying dept.

Ant writes "This Wired News article says it seems to take more brain effort to tell a lie than to tell the truth according to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. Lying caused activity in the frontal part of the brain -- the medial inferior and pre-central areas, as well as the hippocampus and middle temporal regions and the limbic areas. Some of these are involved in emotional responses. During a truthful response, the fMRI showed activation of parts of the brain's frontal lobe, temporal lobe and cingulate gyrus."

6 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. So that's why...... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    GW Bush says it's 'hard work'.

  2. Re:Well, DUH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Does the absence of fear and guilt change the amount of work done by the brain, or do lawyers and such work just as hard as we do?

    One time we hooked up a lawyer to a lie detector. The thing started smoking. Then we turned it on. It blew the fuck up. We didn't even ask him a question yet.

  3. Re:In Korea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You = gay

  4. Re:Laying by eclectro · · Score: 0, Troll

    In other news, 'laying' discovered to have the same effect.

    Thankfully, slashdotters do not need to worry about getting laid, thus freeing up countless brain cells to develope important open source projects.

    --
    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  5. Alternate punchline by quintessent · · Score: 0, Troll

    Doctor: Norma, I thought I told you to hook up the... reader.

    --
    Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
  6. Lying and work by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: -1, Troll

    If lying makes the brain work harder then Dub'ya must be giving himself a migraine.

    --
    It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning