The Truth about Lying: Inhibition of the Anterior Prefrontal Cortex Improves Deceptive Behavior Export

@article{citeulike:4544107, abstract = {Recent neuroimaging studies have indicated a predominant role of the anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) in deception and moral cognition, yet the functional contribution of the aPFC to deceptive behavior remains unknown. We hypothesized that modulating the excitability of the aPFC by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could reveal its functional contribution in generating deceitful responses. Forty-four healthy volunteers participated in a thief role-play in which they were supposed to steal money and then to attend an interrogation with the Guilty Knowledge Test. During the interrogation, participants received cathodal, anodal, or sham tDCS. Remarkably, inhibition of the aPFC by cathodal tDCS did not lead to an impairment of deceptive behavior but rather to a significant improvement. This effect manifested in faster reaction times in telling lies, but not in telling the truth, a decrease in sympathetic skin-conductance response and feelings of guilt while deceiving the interrogator and a significantly higher lying quotient reflecting skillful lying. Increasing the excitability of the aPFC by anodal tDCS did not affect deceptive behavior, confirming the specificity of the stimulation polarity. These findings give causal support to recent correlative data obtained by functional magnetic resonance imaging studies indicating a pivotal role of the aPFC in deception. 10.1093/cercor/bhp090}, author = {Karim, Ahmed A. and Schneider, Markus and Lotze, Martin and Veit, Ralf and Sauseng, Paul and Braun, Christoph and Birbaumer, Niels}, citeulike-article-id = {4544107}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhp090}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/20/1/205}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19443622}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=19443622}, citeulike-linkout-4 = {http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp090}, day = {1}, doi = {10.1093/cercor/bhp090}, issn = {1460-2199}, journal = {Cereb. Cortex}, keywords = {cit, lie}, month = {January}, number = {1}, pages = {205--213}, posted-at = {2009-05-19 01:52:31}, priority = {2}, title = {The Truth about Lying: Inhibition of the Anterior Prefrontal Cortex Improves Deceptive Behavior}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhp090}, volume = {20}, year = {2010} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:4544107 L3 - citeulike-article-id:4544107 N2 - Recent neuroimaging studies have indicated a predominant role of the anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) in deception and moral cognition, yet the functional contribution of the aPFC to deceptive behavior remains unknown. We hypothesized that modulating the excitability of the aPFC by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could reveal its functional contribution in generating deceitful responses. Forty-four healthy volunteers participated in a thief role-play in which they were supposed to steal money and then to attend an interrogation with the Guilty Knowledge Test. During the interrogation, participants received cathodal, anodal, or sham tDCS. Remarkably, inhibition of the aPFC by cathodal tDCS did not lead to an impairment of deceptive behavior but rather to a significant improvement. This effect manifested in faster reaction times in telling lies, but not in telling the truth, a decrease in sympathetic skin-conductance response and feelings of guilt while deceiving the interrogator and a significantly higher lying quotient reflecting skillful lying. Increasing the excitability of the aPFC by anodal tDCS did not affect deceptive behavior, confirming the specificity of the stimulation polarity. These findings give causal support to recent correlative data obtained by functional magnetic resonance imaging studies indicating a pivotal role of the aPFC in deception. 10.1093/cercor/bhp090 IS - 1 JF - Cereb. Cortex SN - 1460-2199 EP - 213 TI - The Truth about Lying: Inhibition of the Anterior Prefrontal Cortex Improves Deceptive Behavior VL - 20 SP - 205 KW - cit KW - lie AU - Karim, Ahmed AU - Schneider, Markus AU - Lotze, Martin AU - Veit, Ralf AU - Sauseng, Paul AU - Braun, Christoph AU - Birbaumer, Niels PY - 2010/01/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhp090 ER -