Contributed by William Angelos| 31 October, 2005 22:22 GMT
Incorporating electrogastrogram in standard polygraph methods improves the accuracy of current lie detectors, researchers have found.
Changes in gastric physiology are more effective than standard polygraph methods in distinguishing between lying and telling the truth, found University of Texas researchers in a study released at the 70th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology.
There is a clear link between the act of lying and a significant increase in gastric arrhythmia, they report.
Nervous System Communications
The researchers wondered whether the gastrointestinal tract might be uniquely sensitive to mental stress because of the communication between the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system.
They recruited sixteen healthy volunteers to undergo simultaneous electrogastrogram (EGG) and electrocardiogram (EKG) recordings for three periods to test their hypothesis.
While both lying and telling the truth affected cardiac symptoms, lying also was associated with gastric symptoms, the investigators found.
When a subject was lying, the EGG showed a significant decrease in the percentage of normal gastric slow waves -- corresponding to a significant increase in the average heart rate during the same situation.
Better Lie Detectors
"We concluded that the addition of the EGG to standard polygraph methods has clear value in improving the accuracy of current lie detectors," says Pankaj Pasricha, MD, University of Texas Medical Branch.
"The communication between the big brain and the little brain in the stomach can be complex and merits further study," Dr. Pasricha adds.
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