BRAIN-SCANNING techniques that test whether people are telling the truth could soon be sufficiently reliable to be used to interrogate criminals...The technique works by monitoring activity in the frontal lobes of the brain, which have to work harder than normal when giving answers that are not truthful. Rugen Gur, a colleague of Dr Langleben, said: “A lie is always more complicated than the truth. You think a bit more and fMRI picks that up.”
Well, I certainly see no potential for abuse here.
Wonder what would happen to the results if on every answer--even those you were telling the truth on--you'd do a math problem in your head before speaking?
Or what if like me, you had had a severe disruption and your memory suffered for it, and you have to reconstruct your memory piece by piece at the time of being asked. That requires a ton of complicated thought, trust me on this.
ReplyDeleteSome memories are intact and accessible immediately, but not always, some are just gone, and some can be reconstructed. In the last two years I have regained access to many of my less memorable (pun intended) memories, but still have gaps, slow access, etc. Heart surgery isn't supposed to cause that, but it did. Doesn't help than my condition is terminal and other things take priority over remembering everybody at the family picnic 10 years ago, Hell , I don't really remember the picnic,either.
So I guess if I was questioned they would interpret the mental hunt for truthful answers as lies.
Ain't dis wunnerful? They would never abuse that, would they?
Anonymous, I'm really sorry to hear about your health problems. I wish there was soemthing I could say besides that.
ReplyDeleteHad a severe disruption myself, from a motorcycle accident a long time ago. I hope your days are easy. Anywho, I think along the lines one of those guys did in the original "The Thing", when he was listening to his buddy speculate on whether or not the Thing could read their minds. He says, " Well, he's gonna be awful mad when he gets to me". Funny. I can read the minds of these control freaks without an MRI.
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