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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotional Autobiographical Recollection
Published on: August 26, 2011
Screening selves: sciences of memory and identity on film, 1930-1960
1University of Chicago.
Abstract:
Chemicals that could be used scientifically to force an individual to tell the truth - dubbed truth sera - were first described in the early 1920s. Ever since, the notion of "truth drugs" has remained tenaciously within popular culture. One of the most important reasons for the survival of the notion of a pharmaceutical technology of authenticity was the role of the barbiturates sodium amytal and sodium pentothal in psychiatric research and treatment during the 1930s through the 1950s. This article traces that history, giving special emphasis to the role of motion pictures. The article argues that researchers were seeking to develop a technology of authenticity (rather than of the truth per se). It examines how they used motion pictures to help them develop and disseminate this technology.
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