I know we were talking about fMRI last week, or at least, I directed you to a blog that gave a good explanation of it. So, this week I thought I would introduce you to a practical application of fMRI, with a caveat. One such application is the use of fMRI in lie detection. There are at least two companies that I know of that are banking on this becoming the standard in the courts. However, I think those companies should go back and review their business plan and model, because within the last month, the courts have ruled the fMRI brain scans for the purpose of lie detection will not be admissible (http://lawneuro.typepad.com/the-law-and-neuroscience-blog/2010/06/united-states-v-semrau.html). The research, method, and interpretation are still in its infancy. The science behind the lie detection says that certain cortical regions, namely bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal and medial premotor cortices, show activation with a subject is lying. These results, published in 2001, raise all sorts of scientific, methodological, and ethical questions with using brain scans for the detecting and judging human behavior. Here are a couple of resources to look at concerning this topic:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11588589?dopt=Abstract This is one of the first articles to examine fMRI and lie detection.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19092066 From the law point of view.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17910165 From the Neuroethics point of view
I got really interested in Neuroethics when I was in graduate school. Neuroethics is something that has really become an issue within the last 10 to 15 years or so as the new medical device technologies and pharmaceuticals have the ability to detect or modify certain human behaviors. I attended some seminars of neuroethics in Washington DC, and the questions keep coming (and there were some arguments too). It’ll take some time to figure this all out, but just as we do, some new technology or new pharmaceutical will come out and we’ll all have to go back to the drawing board. This new court decision on lie detection and fMRI gives us a starting position. We’ll see how things unfold over the years.