Human brain activity is key in deception research This article
appears in the newest edition of Breakthrough Magazine, a
publication that focuses on research and economic development at
the University of South Carolina. In the Fox Network TV show Lie
to Me, Dr. Cal Lightman and his intrepid team figure out who is
lying by spotting subtle body language cues and using their
nifty Facial Action Coding System to detect microexpressions.
Twitch your eyebrows or tighten your jaw in front of those guys,
and you're dead meat. They always catch the liars. In real life,
detecting deception isn't so easy. Real experts on deception
will tell you that microexpressions and body language make for
entertaining TV scripts but haven't been objectively verified
for lie detection purposes. Even polygraph tests, though their
track record is far more extensive, aren't admissible in court.
It turns out the real answer to detecting deception is to search
-- not in the black heart of deceit -- but in the neurological
wiring of the hu