The Lie Detectors (50 page)

In recent decades—and especially since2001—deception-testers have directed their attention away from the heart toward the fount of duplicity: the brain. Since the 1940s, some testers have concentrated on brain waves as measured by encephalography (pictured). More recently, neuroscientists have turned to fMRI scans. In fact, these techniques share many of the presumptions—and fallacies—of old-fashioned polygraphy.