Scientists at University of Southern California studying the brains of 49 people have found that the brains of pathological liars and habitual brains have structural differences in comparison to that of honest people, U.S. scientists said. The study due to be published in the forthcoming issue of British Journal of Psychiatry, said that with up to 26 percent higher concentration of prefrontal white matter liars brains were more wired than their honest counterparts who possessed more prefrontal gray matter.
Adrian Raine, professor of psychology and co-author of the study, suggested, “White matter may provide liars with the tools necessary to master the complex art of deceit”. Though previous studies had indicated lying caused heightening of activity in the prefrontal cortex region, Raine in his study observed that gray matter possibly kept a check over the impulse to lie and his study sought to outline the structural difference in the brains of liars. The study's findings could find applications in criminal investigations to identify suspects lying or to diagnose those seeking financial gain by faking disability.
The study explained the link between structural differences and the tendency to lie, saying that the prefrontal cortex' networking gives an upper hand to lie as that region of the cortex gives the person an “almost a natural advantage” as far as communication and talking their way. Raine while saying that “Lying takes a lot of effort”, said that a liar actually tries to understand other's mindsets and suppress his or her own emotions to appear confident and make what is being said almost true. “There's quite a lot to do there…. You've got to suppress the truth”, Raine said.
The subjects selected from a sample of 108 volunteers from Los Angeles, were aged 21 to 45 years and fluent English speakers and were divided into three groups based on several psychometric tests and interviews, with similarities in IQ, social background, and ethnicity. Of the lot 12 were with a history of pathological lying were grouped together as “liars” and 16 with some antisocial tendencies went form another group, while th remaining 21 formed the “normal'” reference group. Post-categorisation, an MRI scan was used to explore the brain structures of the groups.
Liars with a 14.2 percent lower prefrontal gray matter as against the normal group, according to Raine “got the equipment to lie” and were not far from making up ''big whoppers”. He suggested, “When people make moral decisions, they are relying on the prefrontal cortex…. When people ask normal people to make moral decisions, we see activation in the front of the brain”. He further went to say that the brain structure in liars made them “less likely to care about moral issues or are less likely to be able to process moral issues”, in a way at the mercy of their brains. Stopping short of claiming the structural differences to be responsible for all lying, the researchers concluded that further studies are needed to examine brain anatomy changes during childhood in cohesion with lying abilities.
