fMRI as Lie Detector

Margaret Talbot takes on fMRI and the history of lie detection in her article "Duped" in the July 2, 2007 New Yorker. One company is touting fMRI as a way to exonerate the innocent and damn the guilty. The number of problems with this modality are numerous. One of the major problems is that sociopaths and hardened criminals have brains that respond to lying differently than normals, i.e. they lack pathways that reinforce remorse and guilt.