Word: fmri
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...psychology at Harvard University is trying to answer. More specifically, Greene is trying to identify the particular pattern of brain activity that distinguishes people who are simply telling the truth from those who are resisting the temptation to lie. His findings, which are based on functional-magnetic-resonance-imaging (fMRI) data, shed light not only on the workings of the human mind but also on the controversy over using fMRI technology outside the lab in the detection of lies. (Check out a story about how to spot a liar...
While inside an fMRI scanner, each participant was asked to predict the outcome - heads or tails - of about 210 coin tosses. The participants made their predictions privately, but after each toss, researchers asked them to reveal whether or not they had guessed accurately. A display mounted inside the scanner flashed the questions, and participants pressed a button in response. Each correct prediction was awarded up to $7; incorrect predictions were awarded nothing, but there was ample opportunity to lie and still win the money...
...researchers then divided the volunteers into groups on the basis of their answers. Those who reported an improbably high number of correct answers were labeled dishonest. Most of the others were classified as honest. Researchers then averaged the fMRI data - which monitors blood flow and, therefore, activity inside the brain in real time - for each group to try to establish a neural signature that represented truth-telling and one that characterized lying. (See the top 10 scientific discoveries...
What does this mean? Greene suggests that in some circumstances, real honesty is not about overcoming the temptation to lie but about not having to deal with that temptation in the first place. On an fMRI image, at least, the lying brain may look no different from one that's simply contemplating whether to lie. "Within the dishonest group, we saw no basis for distinguishing lies from honest reports," says Greene...
...photos were actors, and there were no chats arranged. The purpose of the deception was to look inside participants' heads when they were highly engaged in a potential social interaction. Partly because the study design was so complex - it's difficult to study actual social interactions on fMRI - no experiment like this had ever been conducted before. (See pictures of the college dorm's evolution...