Can we get one of these to the white-house Stat.

Scientist using MRI technology have mapped brainwave patterns, and have discovered, that scans of the truthfull look substantially different from scans of those that are lying. this may be a step into the development of more accurate polygraph testing devices.

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brain scans show that the brains of people who are lying look very different from those of people who are telling the truth, U.S. researchers said on Monday.



The study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI, not only sheds light on what goes on when people lie but may also provide new technology for lie-detecting, the researchers said.

"There may be unique areas in the brain involved in deception that can be measured with fMRI," said Dr. Scott Faro, director of the Functional Brain Imaging Center at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

"There may be unique areas in the brain involved in truth-telling," Faro added at a news conference.

Faro and colleagues tested 10 volunteers. Six of them were asked to shoot a toy gun and then lie and say they didn't do it. Three others who watched told the truth about what happened. One volunteer dropped out of the study.

While giving their "testimony," the volunteers were hooked up both to a conventional polygraph and also had their brain activity imaged using fMRI, which used a strong magnet to provide a real-time picture of brain activity.

There were clear differences between the liars and the truth-tellers, Faro's team told a meeting in Chicago of the Radiological Society of North America.

"We found a total of seven areas of activation in the deception (group)," he said. "We found four areas of activity in the truth-telling arm."

Overall, it seemed to take more brain effort to tell the lie than to tell the truth, Faro found.

Reminds me of the fact that it takes fewer muscles to smile than it does to frown. It's just easier to be truthful (unless you spent a bunch of time in the oil industry) than it is to lie. It is only a matter of time before a study shows that living a life above board is more healthy than living in a web of lies. And when it does, I want a cut. Hopefully they will have one of these machines ready for delivery to the Hague in a couple of years.