Concepedia

Neural Correlates of Different Types of Deception: An fMRI Investigation

Cerebral Cortex · 2003 · 421 citations · 35 references

TL;DR

Deception is a complex cognitive activity, and distinct lie types may recruit different neural systems. The study examined whether lies that are coherent and rehearsed versus incoherent and spontaneous engage different brain networks. The authors classified lies along coherence and rehearsal dimensions and used fMRI to compare neural activation. fMRI showed that well‑rehearsed, coherent lies activated right anterior frontal cortex more than spontaneous, incoherent lies, while the opposite pattern was seen in anterior cingulate and posterior visual cortex; both lie types also produced greater activation than truth in anterior prefrontal cortices, parahippocampal gyrus, right precuneus, and left cerebellum, indicating distinct neural networks for different deception types.

Abstract

Deception is a complex cognitive activity, and different types of lies could arise from different neural systems. We investigated this possibility by first classifying lies according to two dimensions, whether they fit into a coherent story and whether they were previously memorized. fMRI revealed that well-rehearsed lies that fit into a coherent story elicit more activation in right anterior frontal cortices than spontaneous lies that do not fit into a story, whereas the opposite pattern occurs in the anterior cingulate and in posterior visual cortex. Furthermore, both types of lies elicited more activation than telling the truth in anterior prefrontal cortices (bilaterally), the parahippocampal gyrus (bilaterally), the right precuneus, and the left cerebellum. At least in part, distinct neural networks support different types of deception.