McCULLOUGH: Require Candidate Brainscans!

WMCA - New York ^ | 11.30.2004

[KMC1]

BRAINSCANS FOR ALL AND TO ALL A GOODNIGHT: Imagine the benefits to the American voter. We can actually document whether or not - from a provable medical perspective as to whether a candidate is habitually lying to the American people.

The nightly network news - would have the print out of the scan and show the results. We could see for ourselves the difference in the brain of the honest and dishonest candidate.

According to Maggie Fox,  writing for Reuters  today.

Brain scans show that the brains of people who are lying look very different from those of people who are telling the truth, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

The study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI, not only sheds light on what goes on when people lie but may also provide new technology for lie-detecting, the researchers said.

"There may be unique areas in the brain involved in deception that can be measured with fMRI," said Dr. Scott Faro, director of the Functional Brain Imaging Center at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

In the study ten people were given a toy gun to shoot, six were asked to lie about it, and three did not - one person dropped out. (Obviously a Michael Moore supporter)

While giving their "accounts" of what happened, the ones who were lying were hooked up to both a conventional polygraph and also had their brain activity imaged using the fMRI - basically a HUGE magnet to provide real-time picture of brain activity.

Faro said that there were clear differences. The ones lying had to in essence utilize more brain power than those telling the truth. The stress of that usage showed clearly on the real time pictures. Lying also caused activity in more sections of the brain (7) as opposed to the truth tellers (4)...

Now obviously law enforcement will  lick their chops at such a tool in order to be able to use it in prosecution of crimes. But I say "We the People" should require one of these procedures be done on all nominated candidates who run for President.

This might have cleared up the picture on some of John Kerry's more magnificent claims... (Cambodian Christmas, The Magic Hat, Which side of the war he was actually on, etc. etc.)

It's at least food for thought...
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[AmericanChef]

Goll, if you can't tell they're lying, you need a brainscan of your own!

[knuthom]

I wonder if this would work the same on people who are habitual and pathological liars, like Bill Clinton. He is so practiced at it that it probably does not take more of his brain power to lie.