Prefrontal white matter in pathological liars.
BACKGROUND
Studies have shown increased bilateral activation in the prefrontal cortex when normal individuals lie, but there have been no structural imaging studies of deceitful individuals.


OBJECTIVE
To assess whether deceitful individuals show structural abnormalities in prefrontal grey and white matter volume.


METHODS
Prefrontal grey and white matter volumes were assessed using structural magnetic resonance imaging in 12 individuals who pathologically lie, cheat and deceive ('liars'),16 antisocial controls and 21 normal controls.


RESULTS
Liars showed a 22-26% increase in prefrontal white matter and a 36-42% reduction in prefrontal grey/white ratios compared with both antisocial controls and normal controls.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings provide the first evidence of a structural brain deficitinliars, they implicate the prefrontal cortex as an important (but not sole) component in the neural circuitry underlying lying and provide an initial neurobiological correlate of a deceitful personality.
Yang
Yaling
Y
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061, USA. yalingy@usc.edu
Raine
Adrian
A
Lencz
Todd
T
Bihrle
Susan
S
Lacasse
Lori
L
Colletti
Patrick
P
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000473:pathology; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000473:pathology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology*