Abnormal brains wired for lies

[emad]

Pathological liars may have structural abnormalities in their brains, a new study suggests.

Researchers have found that individuals who habitually lie and cheat have less grey matter and more white matter in their prefrontal cortex than normal people.

Dr Adrian Raine and Yaling Yang of the University of Southern California and colleagues report their findings in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Past studies have found that the prefrontal cortex shows heightened activity when normal people lie.

It is believed to be involved in both learning moral behaviour and feeling remorse.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1484365.htm

[Richardo]

1. I wrote that paper two years ago.

:)

[Dora]

2. D'oh! You got me. n/t

[leveymg]

3. So, THAT'S how they chose our President!

Normal EEG (frontal lobe)

Shrub EEG (frontal lobe)

"All they gave me after the trip to the head doctor was this tee-shirt" - G.W. Bush

[atommom]

4. The prefrontal cortex is very important for many things,

like foresight, good judgement, getting one's shit together, etc. I think we can conclude that the Bush administration needs a pfc transplant.

[leveymg]

5. We certainly need a new head of state:

[murray hill farm]

8. and then there is this question..

does habitual lieing cause one to develop more white matter in the prefrontal cortex..over time?

[havocmom]

6. Less gray matter. More white matter.

:think: Fat heads!

Seriously, the recent discoveries about the brain are really sorta cool. Sadly, they will probably be used to advance the agendas of more fat heads.

The liars and cheats seem to like science when they can use it to their advantage. And since the neocons seem hell bent on keeping science education on a downward spiral for the masses, one might surmise they don't want anyone cutting into their mind games gig.

[leveymg]

7. I'm sure they'll find a way to supplement the Leary and PAS tests

in selecting who gets into the Agency, and who does what. Let's see, lack of remorse and no galvanic twitching during lie detector sessions - why he'd be a natural for certain assignments! If only it he didn't have that uncontrollable jaw thing under stress. . .;-) B-) :evilgrin: