PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Joseph R. Simpson
TI  - Functional MRI Lie Detection: Too Good to be True?
DP  - 2008 Dec 01
TA  - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
PG  - 491--498
VI  - 36
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jaapl.org/content/36/4/491.short
4100  - http://jaapl.org/content/36/4/491.full
SO  - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law2008 Dec 01; 36
AB  - Neuroscientists are now applying a 21st-century tool to an age-old question: how can you tell when someone is lying? Relying on recently published research, two start-up companies have proposed to use a sophisticated brain-imaging technique, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to detect deception. The new approach promises significantly greater accuracy than the conventional polygraph—at least under carefully controlled laboratory conditions. But would it work in the real world? Despite some significant concerns about validity and reliability, fMRI lie detection may in fact be appropriate for certain applications. This new ability to peer inside someone's head raises significant questions of ethics. Commentators have already begun to weigh in on many of these questions. A wider dialogue within the medical, neuroscientific, and legal communities would be optimal in promoting the responsible use of this technology and preventing abuses.