"It strikes me as odd that people seem rarely to see the positive side of a reliable lie detector," Kosslyn said. "If you're innocent, wouldn't it be nice to have a way to support your claims?"
Researchers say more accurate lie detectors could help courts and police.
Doctors could also determine whether patients are being less than truthful in describing their symptoms. Corporations could check whether their employees -- or perhaps even their chief executives and accountants -- are truthful.
Other scientists are looking at "thermal imaging" (training a heat-sensitive camera on people's faces that would register increased blood flow around the eyes) and "automated face analysis" (a computer that analyzes the tiniest expressions in the face) as potential lie detectors.
Lawrence Farwell, an Iowa-based neuroscientist who runs Brain Wave Science, has developed what he calls "brain fingerprinting." It focuses on a specific electrical brain wave, called a P300, which activates when a person sees a familiar object.
A convicted murderer petitioning for a new trial has already tried to use brain fingerprinting as evidence in an Iowa court. The test showed that the defendant, Terry Harrington, had no memory of the crime scene, but the judge refused to accept it as evidence.
Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program, warns that none of the new technology has been proven to work like the scientists claim.
But if it does, Steinhardt said, "then it would become another weapon in the arsenal of those who want to put us into a surveillance society where every action, every deed and one's very thoughts can be monitored, categorized and correlated."
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