WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, ERIK1980
It’s the stuff of science fiction: brain scans that can reveal when people are lying, or genetic analyses that predispose people to criminality. But according to a new UK Royal Society report, such neuroscience techniques aren't ready for the courtroom and should stay in the lab for now.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) currently can’t reveal whether a person is deliberately lying, and would be absolutely useless against witnesses who think they are telling the truth but are mistaken, University of Cambridge experimental psychologist Nicholas Mackintosh, who headed the working group that produced the report, told ScienceInsider. The subtleties of the scientific conclusion run the risk of being glossed over by jurors who are overly impressed by a brain scan, he added.
But the report ...
