This is more of a hypothetical question, since doing something like this in practice would obviously be unethical.
I read that the brain uses more neurons when lying than when saying the truth. Following from that, would using a drug or surgery to inhibit or destroy these extra neurons make someone incapable of lying?
The current "truth serums" that I read about are similar to alcohol in effect - they make you more talkative, but don't actually prevent you from lying.
Full Version: Lie Inhibition
QUOTE
the brain uses more neurons when lying
I think you're assuming its always using the same neurons when your lying rather than just increasing the quantity. Your simply concentrating more, and destroying the extra concentration neurons is an analogy that explains why it wouldnt work. I'm no neurologist though, and maybe someone like Orbz will come and shed some light.The best truth serum is the threat of death or the reward of money, thats how it works in most spy films
QUOTE
I think you're assuming its always using the same neurons when your lying rather than just increasing the quantity.
Its not simply about concentrating; when you say the truth you only need to recall, but when lying you also use creativity in order to make up the false information - there should be specific parts of the brain for that.
So you think that destroying specific areas within our brains responsible for creativity AND lying is possible? I think the areas currently mapped in the brain are a lot less segmented than we currently believe.
QUOTE(Hudzon @ Jan 25, 2008, 07:46 PM) 
This is more of a hypothetical question, since doing something like this in practice would obviously be unethical.
I read that the brain uses more neurons when lying than when saying the truth. Following from that, would using a drug or surgery to inhibit or destroy these extra neurons make someone incapable of lying?
The current "truth serums" that I read about are similar to alcohol in effect - they make you more talkative, but don't actually prevent you from lying.
I s'pose you could destroy certain executive functioning areas in the prefrontal cortex (ie parts of the orbito-frontal cortex and maybe anterior cingulate cortex), inhibiting the person's ability to make the decision to lie. At the same time making them more compulsive, so you probably couldn't be sure whether they are telling the truth, but they may not be actively lying either.
You could also try destroying parts of the amygdala, inhibitng the person's fear of telling the truth (?), but again you still wouldn't know if they were telling the truth.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2007 Feb;19(2):287-95.
Deceiving others: distinct neural responses of the prefrontal cortex and amygdala in simple fabrication and deception with social interactions.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.