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Progress In Brain-Based Lie Detection
A Cognitive Neuroscientist writes "A new study, led by Harvard Psychologist Joshua Greene and forthcoming in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may represent progress on the front of using brain imaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, to detect lies. According to Harvard's press release, Greene's is 'the first study to examine brain activity of people telling actual lies,' as opposed to prior studies in which subjects were merely instructed to lie. The results suggest that one key step in distinguishing honest from dishonest individuals may involve focusing on a small set of brain regions that are responsible for executive control and attention. However, given that the actual paper is yet to be published, it's unclear whether the study is prone to some of the methodological and interpretive complications that have recently plagued similar brain imaging studies."
Back to savage beatings and waterboarding, I guess.
I don't understand why the contributor of this story is so skeptical of it...it seems all we would need to do is hook the scientists up to an fMRI and we'd know for sure if they were lying about the study!
I understand that it takes significant testing to confirm that the machines are working correctly for each individual. I would bet that many individuals - such as psychopaths - could easily beat the machine if they refused to cooperate/pretened to cooperate with the 'set-up' phase.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
...to find out the location of the Hidden Rebel Base.
Truth and lies are simply a matter of acceptance and denial. Our perceptions of right and wrong are merely an assimilation of experiences in life. What is a lie for some is truth for others. Some people have mastered the notion of changing lies into truth and truth into lies in public, in private and even in their own hearts and minds.
Defeating such testing may well be as trivial as defeating traditional polygraph tests as they both rely on the same principle -- metabolic and other reactions in the body to the conflicts that reside in the brain when the logical loops result from the mix of truth and lie. I know that lawyers are especially skilful at transforming or even abandoning their own personal beliefs and convictions in order to serve the needs and interests of their clients. This is an art that can be learned by anyone with the patience to learn.
although Wonder Woman's magic rope is still the standard to beat.
Is it? I was never really sure how well her rope worked. Sure the villain would admit that he was behind it all and tell her what his evil plans regarding the missile base were, but I don't recall any ever admitting that being tied up by Wonder Woman had him more turned on than ever in his life, or telling her what his evil plans regarding the Wonder Woman body pillow in his closet were.
If it misses out on the little, obvious truths, how can I trust the big ones?
The enemies of Democracy are
No. The body of law was constructed under the knowledge that it is not possible to verify your actions to 100% certainty. Think punitive deterrents etc. When the laws were written there was an implicit expectation of leeway guaranteed by the uncertainty of events. Not to mention that people are entirely capable of creating delusional fantasies that have replaced reality to the point that even if they thought they were lying( or telling the truth) that is still insufficient to prove that events occurred as reported.
-- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
The truth is apparently easier for a person to relate than a lie is.
Memories are easier for a person to relate than is made up stuff. That's part of the problem with eyewitnesses. After an event, their brain fills in the blanks of their memory, making a coherent narrative.
There was a long term study done where they asked people right after the challenger explosion, where they were. Then, years later, they asked about the same thing and compared results. Some people had completely different stories, or the details wrong, but they swore they knew what they had been doing.
If a defendant can convince himself that a story is true, no lie detector will be able to tell. There are drugs that are used in the treatment of PTSD that keep traumatic memories from being fixed in the brain. I could see someone taking one of these, doing a crime, then rehearsing over and over the alternate history. After the drugs wore off, the alternate history could become the truth in the defendant's brain.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)