The neural correlates of deception and lying

A variety of neuroimaging studies have provided evidence for frontal lobeinvolvement underpinning the neurobiological processes involved in deception. Lying isa skill which can be used if chosen in the behaviour towards others and has beenconsidered by some as a primitive survival activity. A variety of neural areas have beenimplicated from current research including the amygdala, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,anterior cingulate cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex which serve a variety offunctions implicated in the use and observation of deceptive behaviour. Current researchhas been unable to definitively conceive of any neural pattern of telling the truth andsuggests that the process of lying serves as a departure from the default processing of thebrain in human behaviour. Thus far, there have been few studies to describe theneuroimaging correlates of pathological lying further than current research demonstratingdifferences in frontal lobe white matter volumes in this group. The implications for thisresearch are far-reaching but the current limitations mean that the future for this field isfar from clear. Replicating the use of everyday lying within neuroimaging research hasbeen complicated by inadequate sample sizes and lack of comparability in experimentaldesign, notwithstanding the ethical questions that are being raised the more we knowabout what it is to lie.