Thanks for sharing this!

More about pathological lying - click on these links:

http://samvak.tripod.com/journal59.html

http://samvak.tripod.com/journal23.html

http://samvak.tripod.com/journal75.html

http://samvak.tripod.com/faq39.html

Take care.

Sam


----- Original Message -----
From: "ok2solo" <ok2solo@...>
To: <Psychopathsgroup@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 12:38 AM
Subject: [Psychopaths and Narcissists group] First evidence of brain
abnormalities found in pathological liars


http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-09/uosc-feo092805.php

First evidence of brain abnormalities found in pathological liars
The USC study shows structural differences in the area of the brain
that enables most people to feel remorse
A University of Southern California study has found the first proof of
structural brain abnormalities in people who habitually lie, cheat and
manipulate others.

While previous research has shown that there is heightened activity in
the prefrontal cortex - the area of the brain that enables most people
to feel remorse or learn moral behavior - when normal people lie, this
is the first study to provide evidence of structural differences in
that area among pathological liars.

The research - led by Yaling Yang and Adrian Raine, both of the USC
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences - is published in the October
issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.

The subjects were taken from a sample of 108 volunteers pulled from
Los Angeles' temporary employment pool. A series of psychological
tests and interviews placed 12 in the category of people who had a
history of repeated lying (11 men, one woman); 16 who exhibited signs
of antisocial personality disorder but not pathological lying (15 men,
one woman); and 21 who were normal controls (15 men, six women).

"We looked for things like inconsistencies in their stories about
occupation, education, crimes and family background," said Raine, a
psychology professor at USC and co-author of the study.

"Pathological liars can't always tell truth from falsehood and
contradict themselves in an interview. They are manipulative and they
admit they prey on people. They are very brazen in terms of their
manner, but very cool when talking about this."

Aside from having histories of conning others or using aliases, the
habitual liars also admitted to malingering, or telling falsehoods to
obtain sickness benefits, Raine said.

After they were categorized, the researchers used Magnetic Resonance
Imaging to explore structural brain differences between the groups.
The liars had significantly more "white matter" and slightly less
"gray matter" than those they were measured against, Raine said.

Specifically, liars had a 25.7 percent increase in prefrontal white
matter compared to the antisocial controls and a 22 percent increase
compared to the normal controls. Liars had a 14.2 percent decrease in
prefrontal gray matter compared to normal controls.

More white matter - the wiring in the brain - may provide liars with
the tools necessary to master the complex art of deceit, Raine said.

"Lying takes a lot of effort," he said.

"It's almost mind reading. You have to be able to understand the
mindset of the other person. You also have to suppress your emotions
or regulate them because you don't want to appear nervous. There's
quite a lot to do there. You've got to suppress the truth.

"Our argument is that the more networking there is in the prefrontal
cortex, the more the person has an upper hand in lying. Their verbal
skills are higher. They've almost got a natural advantage."

But in normal people, it's the gray matter - or the brain cells
connected by the white matter - that helps keep the impulse to lie in
check.

Pathological liars have a surplus of white matter, the study found,
and a deficit of gray matter. That means they have more tools to lie
coupled with fewer moral restraints than normal people, Raine said.

"They've got the equipment to lie, and they don't have the
disinhibition that the rest of us have in telling the big whoppers,"
he said.

"When people make moral decisions, they are relying on the prefrontal
cortex. When people ask normal people to make moral decisions, we see
activation in the front of the brain," he explained. "If these liars
have a 14 percent reduction in gray matter, that means that they are
less likely to care about moral issues or are less likely to be able
to process moral issues. Having more gray matter would keep a check on
these activities."

The researchers stopped short of asserting that these structural
differences account for all lying.

"This is one of the components," Raine said.

"The findings need to be replicated and extended to other parts of the
brain. What are the other neurobiological processes?

"We haven't had studies like this. It's exciting to us because it's a
beginning study, but we need a lot more to flesh out this discovery."

Yang, the study's lead author, said the findings eventually could be
used in making clinical diagnoses and may have applications in the
criminal justice system and the business world.

"If [the findings] can be replicated and extended, they may have
long-term implications in a number of areas," said Yang, a doctoral
student in the USC department of psychology's brain and cognitive
science program.

"For example, in the legal system they could potentially be used to
help police work out which suspects are lying. In terms of clinical
practice, they could help clinicians diagnose who is malingering -
making up disability for financial gain. "And also in business, they
could assist in pre-employment screening, working out which
individuals may not be suitable for hiring.

"But, right now, I have to emphasize that there are no direct
practical applications," she said.

In their journal article, the authors mention that separate studies of
autistic children - who typically have trouble lying - have showed the
converse pattern of gray matter/white matter ratios.

"The facts that autistic children have difficulty lying and also show
reduced prefrontal white matter constitutes the opposite but
complementary pattern of the results compared to adults with increased
prefrontal white matter who find it easy to lie," the researchers wrote.

"Although autism is a complex condition and cannot be taken as a model
for lying, these results . converge with current findings on adult
liars in suggesting that the prefrontal cortex is centrally involved
in the capacity to lie."






MSN Narcissistic Personality Disorder Group - click on this link:

http://groups.msn.com/NARCISSISTICPERSONALITYDISORDER

MSN Psychopath Group - click on this link:

http://groups.msn.com/PSYCHOPATH

Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited - click on this link:

http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com

Personality Disorders - click on this link:

http://personalitydisorders.suite101.com/
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