News Neuroscience

Frequent liars show less activity in key brain structure

Blunted reaction in amygdala may explain how small lies escalate

person crossing fingers behind back

TRUTH BE TOLD  As people told more lies, their brain activity changed, a finding that could represent dishonesty’s slippery slope.

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By Laura Sanders

- More than 2 years ago

When small lies snowball into blizzards of deception, the brain becomes numb to dishonesty. As people tell more and bigger lies, certain brain areas respond less to the whoppers, scientists report online October 24 in Nature Neuroscience.