Lying, Telling Truth Use Different Parts of Brain

Brain scans of people who are lying look very different from scans of those who are telling the truth, U.S. researchers said Monday.

The study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, found that lying caused activity in the frontal part of the brain -- the medial inferior and precentral areas -- as well as the hippocampus and middle temporal regions and the limbic areas. A truthful response showed activation of parts of the brain’s frontal lobe, temporal lobe and cingulate gyrus. Overall, it seemed to take more brain effort to tell a lie, said researchers at Temple University School of Medicine.