Lying in the scanner: localized inhibition predicts lying skill

Abstract

Recent literature suggests that lying may be revealed by elevated cognitive effort. A functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment using a match-mismatch detection task was conducted that found support for this hypothesis in two ways. First, compared to truthful reporting, lying (i.e., responding that matches were mismatches or vice versa) triggered greater activation of the working memory network in the brain. This was especially true for lying about a match, where activation in the WM network was found to be greater than when lying about a mismatch. Lying also activated the right rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 10)-a key cognitive control region that regulates the interplay between stimulus-oriented and internally-generated schemas. Second, activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44) - a brain region underpinning inhibition - predicted lying skill. The findings show that the neural correlates of cognitive effort and control can be used to detect lying, and that a specific neural marker of inhibition can predict how well one lies.