Brain abnormalities linked to pathological lying

ABC news -- Rueters -- health ^ | 10-17-05 | not disclosed

[afraidfortherepublic]

Brain abnormalities linked to pathological lying Reuters

Oct 17, 2005 — NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pathological liars may have structural abnormalities in their brains, a new study suggests.

Dr. Adrian Raine and Yaling Yang of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and colleagues found that individuals who habitually lied and cheated had less gray matter and more white matter in their prefrontal cortex than normal people. They report their findings in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Past studies have found that the prefrontal cortex shows heightened activity when normal people lie, and it is believed to be involved in both learning moral behavior and feeling remorse.

Because gray matter consists of brain cells, while white matter forms the "wiring" or connections between these cells, pathological liars may have more capacity to lie and fewer moral restraints, the authors suggest.

"They've got the equipment to lie, and they don't have the disinhibition that the rest of us have in telling the big whoppers," Raine said in a press release accompanying the study.

The researchers used a series of psychological tests and interviews in a group of volunteers to identify 12 pathological liars, 16 people with antisocial personality disorder but no history of lying, and 21 normal people. They then examined the brains of all study participants using magnetic resonance imaging.

Liars had 26 percent more white matter in their prefrontal cortex than people with antisocial personality disorder, and 22 percent more than normal people. But they had 14 percent less gray matter than normal individuals.

Interestingly, the researchers note, autistic people — who are known to have difficulty lying — show a shift in gray-to-white matter ratio opposite to that seen among liars in the current study.

"Although autism is a complex condition and cannot be taken as a model for lying, these results on autistic children, combined with the prior fMRI findings on lying in normal controls, converge with current findings on adult liars suggesting that the prefrontal cortex is centrally involved in the capacity to lie," the authors write.

[Lester Moore]

I guess the divide is that materialists see all belief, thought, speech and action as created in the brain (with which they identify) while those who see humans as spiritual beings view the brain as a complex switchboard subject to modification by the operator.

But even materialists would have to acknowledge the effectiveness of neuro-associative conditioning.

[sarasota]

Gee, I wonder if it's the same friend I have...???

[theFIRMbss]

>One has to wonder whether use of the brain in forming a lie (free will) helps develop this physical change?

"Max... I'm so glad you came to me. I've been through it all myself, you see. Your reality is already half video hallucination. If you're not careful, it will become total hallucination. You'll have to learn to live in a very strange new world. I had a brain tumour. And I had visions. I believe the visions caused the tumour, and not the reverse. I could feel the visions coalesce and become flesh, uncontrollable flesh. But when they removed the tumour, it was called Videodrome . . ."

[lilylangtree]

An email reply this morning from my friend and I quote: "Very Good but sweetie, you have to realize, you HAVE to have a brain to be a liar." Did you get the same reply too?

[sarasota]

I didn't have the nerve to send this article. I'm going to let this sleeping dog lie to maintain my friendship. And I wonder if I'm doing the right thing.