Psychological Articles

"After A Magnetic Pulse to the Brain, Study Subjects Cannot Tell a Lie"

psydoctor8:

Terrible headline from Popular Science on this one. The study they are talking about is titled Effect of prefrontal transcranial magnetic stimulation on spontaneous truth-telling (a little different, huh?) and used transcranial magnetic stimulation to send a tiny electrical pulse to a specific part of the brain, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex -see below.  This area has been found to play a large role in deception and complex thinking.

So in this experiment 16 people (it’s really tough to get a large number of people willing to let you zap thier brain for some reason)  had left or right hemisphere  stimulation to “ test whether spontaneous propensity to lying can be changed by brain stimulation”.

 The eight people who had their left DPC stimulated lied more often, the researchers said. The ones with the right DPC stimulated were more likely to tell the truth. 

Although not as flashy, the actual study is more amazing than a science  writer’s grabby headline, since it’s closer to the truth, on more than one level.

Image. Full article.

(via neuroticthought)