Word: lies
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...only way your mind can blow your cover; electrical activity can too. Your brain emits signals called event-related potentials (ERPs) that can be tracked with a high-density electroencephalogram (EEG) machine and 128 sensors attached to the face and scalp. Telling the truth and then a lie can take from 40 to 60 milliseconds longer than telling two truths in a row, because the brain must shift its data-assembly strategies. In theory, if a subject truthfully answers a question related to intention (say, "Are you traveling to Miami?") and then answers a more relevant question about intention...
...application of thermal-imaging technology, called periorbital thermography, uses a high-resolution camera to detect temperature changes as small as .045°F (.025°C). Endocrinologist James Levine of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., co-authored a paper in the journal Nature in 2002 in which he claimed a lie-detection accuracy of 73%. Investigators at the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute (DODPI) in Fort Jackson, S.C., tell TIME they have reached...
...shortcomings of fMRIs may be more serious. Physical anomalies such as evidence of a stroke or tumor can interfere with the scan's accuracy. And the test is administered in a decidedly unnatural way--with the subject lying down inside a giant magnet. Since speaking aloud activates regions of the brain that could swamp lie-detection results, subjects are asked yes-or- no questions and then instructed to push a button to answer. Maybe the brain operates the same way with a push-button fib as with a verbal one--but maybe it doesn't. And because...
...biggest problems, however, may be ethical and constitutional. For now, improved lie detection is likely to have broad public support. But what about when it reaches more surreptitiously into our lives? Biophysicist Britton Chance of the University of Pennsylvania has explored ways to use infrared light projected from a distance to penetrate the skull, looking for signs of stress similar to the ones fMRIs detect. Both that and remote periorbital thermography could be used undetectably in airport lines to spot high-stress passengers. Whether that stress is caused by the bomb you're concealing or the fact you're running...
Several groups have raised questions about the new technologies. The American Civil Liberties Union filed Freedom of Information requests in June, seeking to learn more about lie-detection research the government is conducting and whether the techniques are already being used in the field. This fall a leading--but as yet undisclosed--science journal will publish the results of a paper it solicited from Stanford's Greely and other legal experts and scientists exploring the ethics of lie detection. The authors are not expected to smile unreservedly on the science or on the way they believe it may already...