After reading Slashdot’s latest on
lie-detection using an MRI (Magnetic
Resonance Imagery), I read a submission to Nature on “Empathic
neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others,” which
also used MRI to detect emotional states of its subjects. (The title is from
the cover of Nature’s 26/01/06 issue.) Basically,
a team from CalTech,
the Wellcome Department of Imaging,
Neuroscience, and the Institute
of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College of London, used the
Prisoner’s Dilemma game to induce liking and disliking of opponent players. Emotional
reactions could be located in specific regions of the brain.
Being able to “see” emotions in the brain sounds pretty
cool, but these emotions have been known to be “real” since Homer told the
story of Apollo helping Paris
kill Achilles. The new technology for lie detection sounds like it could be
used for great profit, but how would you feel being asked for a “lifestyle MRI?”
The lifestyle polygraph is rather feared because the more conscientious you
are, the more likely it is to trip you up. (Remember that pen you “stole” by
failing to return it?) However, the polygraph is inaccurate and hasn’t caught
any spies yet. (They’ll say it helped, but it didn’t stop Aldrich Ames or
Robert Hansen.)
Who will administer the lie-detection MRI? It’s not like you
can go get a six-week degree in radiology and neurology, as you can for the
polygraph. It takes a
board-certified
radiologist
just to find something actually wrong with you in an MRI, not
just a subtle change in a specific area during the subject’s response.
I doubt
highly that if any companies start setting this up that they’ll even
use
scientific staff to run it. I doubt that many doctors would even
testify to its
reliability, but that won’t stop it from being used for profit.
Fortunately, the courts have refused to admit polygraphs as evidence
and will do the same for MRI lie detection.