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5 - Detecting of deception and concealed information using neuroimaging techniques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Matthias Gamer
Edited by
Bruno Verschuere ,
Gershon Ben-Shakhar  and
Ewout Meijer
Matthias Gamer
Affiliation:
University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
Bruno Verschuere
Affiliation:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Gershon Ben-Shakhar
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ewout Meijer
Affiliation:
Universiteit Maastricht, Netherlands
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Summary

Overview: In the last decade, neuroimaging techniques became increasingly popular to study the neural underpinnings of psychological processes and consequently these methods were also applied in deception research. After giving a brief overview on neuroimaging methods, this chapter summarizes studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging or positron emission tomography to examine the neural underpinnings of deception and information concealment. A meta-analysis was carried out to determine the clustering of brain activation peaks across studies when contrasting deceptive with truthful answers in the Differentiation of Deception (DoD) paradigm or critical details with neutral items in the Concealed Information Test (CIT). A ventral frontoparietal network that is involved in detecting behaviorally relevant stimuli by matching them with previously acquired memory representations was recruited in both experimental paradigms. On this basis, first attempts to derive individual diagnoses from neuroimaging data will be described and the application of the DoD paradigm to forensic questions will be critically discussed. With respect to the CIT, neuroimaging techniques can be highly useful to shed light on the neural processes underlying information concealment and this knowledge can ultimately help to improve CIT validity.

Introduction

Traditionally, autonomic measures have been used to detect deception and there is a long tradition of utilizing these recordings for detecting concealed information as well (Lykken, 1959, 1998). However, new techniques emerged in the last decades that allow for examining brain activity with high temporal (e.g., techniques relying on electroencephalography) or spatial resolution (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]).

Type
Chapter
Information
Memory Detection
Theory and Application of the Concealed Information Test
 , pp. 90 - 113
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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