The Lie Behind Lie Detectors

Wired News commentator Jennifer Granick examines the shortcomings of current polygraph tests, which are highly unreliable, and compares them to the emerging field of fMRI lie detection.

Under laboratory conditions, fMRI technology might be 90 percent accurate in determining whether individuals in a test group of Americans are lying about taking a watch or a ring. But it's useless for employee screening, convicting the guilty, identifying terrorists at the airport or separating innocents from enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay -- at least at the moment.

At some point soon, these high-tech lie detectors will be cheap, accurate, portable and unobtrusive enough to replace the polygraph in incident investigations. But we are a long way from reading minds.

Wired News: The Lie Behind Lie Detectors