Can brain scans show when someone is lying?
This debate is taking place right now between Gary Smith, who says he didn’t kill his roommate and Montgomery County prosecutors, who say otherwise.
According to an article in the Washington Post, some of the nation’s leading neuroscientists, who are using the same technology to study Alzheimer’s disease and memory, say MRI brain scans also can show — at least in the low-stakes environment of a laboratory — when someone is being deceptive.
However, many experts doubt whether the technology is ready for the real world, and judges have kept it out of the courtroom.
In a previous blog post we talked about some of the physiological factors of lying and fMRI scans.