Lie-specific involvement of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in deception

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Brain Stimulation

Background:

• Lying involves intentional distortion of event knowledge.
• Experimental manipulation of lying processes lacks data.
• The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is implicated in cognitive control and deception.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the causal role of the DLPFC in deception.
• To examine the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on lying behavior.
• To differentiate neural mechanisms underlying various types of lies.

Main Methods:

• Fifteen healthy volunteers underwent anodal, cathodal, and sham tDCS over the DLPFC.
• Participants completed a computer-controlled task involving truthful and deceptive responses (selected and unselected).
• Reaction times (RTs) and accuracy were measured before and after stimulation.

Main Results:

• Baseline RT was significantly longer for lie responses than true responses (1153.4 ms vs. 1039.6 ms).
• Anodal tDCS over the DLPFC significantly increased RTs for selected lie responses (16.86% increase, P = 0.002).
• Cathodal and sham tDCS did not significantly affect lie response times.

Conclusions:

• Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) stimulation causally influences experimental deception.
• Anodal tDCS specifically modulates selected lie responses, suggesting distinct neural underpinnings for different deception types.
• tDCS is a viable tool for probing the neural basis of complex cognitive functions like lying.