Judy Illes, Ph.D. Judicial Seminar on Emerging Issues in Neuroscience

Stanford University2006

Brain Imaging and Lie Detection:Avoiding a Collision between

Neuroscience and the Justice System

Center for Biomedical Ethics, Program in NeuroethicsDepartment of Pediatrics, Medical Genetics

Stanford University

A Return to the Fish Story

The fish I caught was this big …

Dana Press, 2004

Outline

• Baseline Technology and experimental models Neural circuitry

• Ethical obstacles and challenges Conceptual and behavioral Technical Policy

• Lessons from the history of neuroscience, admissibility, varying scenarios, conclusions

From Antiquity to Present

EEG: Electrical signals

PET and SPECT:Blood flow and metabolic activity

MEG: Current sources and sinks

ActivationMap

IncreasedNeuronalActivity

IncreasedOxygenatedBlood Flow

HbO2 Hbarterial venous

Performa Task

Non-invasive, small clinical risk

Behavior FunctionalBrain Anatomy

Functional MRI

Stimulus

Response

A A A AB B B

- =

"A" state images Activation map”B" state images

Courtesy of Gary Glover, PhD

The fMRI Experiment

Trends in Research with fMRI

Year

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

% of Articles

0.0

20.0

40.0

60.0

80.0

100.0 motor sensory1 sensory2 cognition1 cognition2 emotion

Illes et al., Nat. Neuroscience, 2003

Trends in Research with fMRI

De Martino et al., Science, 2006

Rational Decision-making

Moral Judgement

Greene et al., Science, 2001

Superior Temporal Sulcus

Posterior Cingulate/Precuneus

Impersonal Moral Dilemmas

Non-moral Dilemmas

Personal Moral Dilemmas

Bra

in A

ctiv

ity%

ch

ang

e M

R s

igna

l

Medial Frontal Cortex

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)

Emotional/Social Cognition Areas

“Cognitive” Areas

Personality

Canli et al., Science, 2002

Mean Correlation

Scatterplot

-1

0

1

2

3

r = .20

p = .24

T S

core

-1

0

1

2

3

30 40 50

r = .71

p < .002

T S

core

Extraversion Score

Fear

Happy

Activation Correlation with Extraversion

T Value

L R

Lying and Deception(of ~20 in Research Articles in PubMed)

• Spence et al., 2001 True/false about subject’s daily activities

• Langleben et al., 2002; Davatzikos et al., 2005 True/false about playing card in subject’s possession

• Lee et al. 2002 True/false about autobiographical information

• Ganis et al., 2003 True/false about life narrative

• Kozel et al. 2005; Mohamed et al. 2006 True/false mock crime

Critical Nodes in Neural Circuitry

Anterior prefrontal areaVentromedial prefrontal areaDorsolateral prefrontal areaParahippocampal areasAnterior cingulate, left posterior cingulateTemporal and subcortical caudateRight precuneousLeft cerebellumInsulaPutamen, caudate, thalamusRegions of temporal cortex

Entrepreneurial Efforts

• No Lie MRI

• Cephos

• Human Bionics

• N=? Supported by the military and intelligence community

Outline

• Technology and experimental models

• Neural circuitry

• Ethical obstacles and challenges Conceptual and behavioral Technical Policy

• Lessons from the history of neuroscience, admissibility, varying scenarios, conclusions

Does imaging visualize human thought?

No: Thought is a composite of cognitive functions involving - information processing,- the disposition of an individual to information,

and - individual methods of integrating information

into an internal schema and responding to it.

Imaging does, however, visualize correlates of the cognitive functions that humans harness to create thought.

Visualizing Human Thought

Conceptual and Behavioral Issues

• Human behavior is complex, involving:memory, intention, motivation, planning and executive function, monitoring, mood, daily physiology

+ consciousness, will and language

• Lying and deception require all of the above, +Inferences about:

another person’s intent or positiongullibility

Conceptual and Behavioral Issues, cont’d

• Lying and deception are different:

Lying: Frank misinformation that states an erroneous conclusion.

Deception: Misleading information, omission, distortion that leads to an erroneous conclusion.

• There are good and bad liars (and deceivers).

• There are everyday liars and there are pathologic liars.

• There are dark lies and white lies.

It is not a lie, it's a terminological inexactitude. Also, a tactical misrepresentation.

Alexander Haig

Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically–for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners.

Quentin Crisp

No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.Abraham Lincoln

I never had sex with that woman.Bill Clinton

Technical Issues• Paradigmatic (Standards of practice, quality

control) Instrumentation Study design Experimental parameters; internal/external validity Socioculturally-appropriate stimuli Subject N’s and relevance Data geography (ROIs) SNR /statistical approach(es)

• Analytic Localization vs. networks Repeat scanning and learning effects Motivation-mitigated neural signatures

Ethics & Policy Issues• Privacy

• Context Autonomy, Coercion

•Accused, victims (false memories)

•Children and adults (stigma, profiling)

• Justice What goal? What uses?

•Proximate

Definitive or adjunctive information? Degree? Motivation? Intent? Screening/prediction?

•Long-range

• Nonmalficence False positives/false negatives Unexpected clinical finding

Courtesy of The Lucas MR Imaging Center, Stanford University

The Case of SH

Ethics & Policy Issues

• Countermeasures (internal and external [e.g, beta blockers, TMS])

• Allocation of scarce resources for research

• Oversight - By whom and how

• Moral culpability (Kulynych 2002)

Risks and Troubling Concerns

• Premature adoption of technology

• Misuse, mischievous covert use• Technically incorrect use (equipment, personnel)

• Outcome of false positives• Outcomes of true positives

• Conflict of interest (overzealous “lie catchers”; quotas)

• Public perception

Kozel et al., Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2004.

Brain Fingerprinting, Polygraphy, MRI

• What’s new? Technical sophistication (but consider cost and

availability) Power of the image Type of measure (emotional [physiologic vs.

cognitive]) Promise of new technology may be considerable

http://www.brainwavescience.com/HarringtonSummary.php

Brain Fingerprinting, Polygraphy, MRI

• Reflecting on the past Similarities are conceptual,

ethical & technical• Experimental paradigms • Meaning• Interpretation• Autonomy• Use and outcomes (how and by

whom)• Countermeasures• Sensitivity/specificity metric…

only the If, not the What

FORENSIC TECHNOLOGIES, INC.When the truth really matters... count on us

Outline

• Technology and experimental models • Neural circuitry• Ethical obstacles and challenges

Conceptual and behavioral Technical Policy

• Lessons from the history of neuroscience, admissibility, varying scenarios, conclusions

“The brain can’t lie: Brain scans reveal how you think and even how you might behave.”

--The Guardian, 2003

Racine, Bar-Ilan, Illes, fMRI in the Public Eye, NRN, 2005

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 0 1 2 3 4*

#

Year

Coverage of fMRI in theInternational Print Press

Lessons from the History of Neuroscience

• Prefrontal lobotomies (1935)

• Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (1986)

• Mozart Effect (1993)

• Measles, mumps, rubella vaccine/autism (1998)

• Convicted facing sentencing• Accused• Screening

Different Scenarios

AdmissibilityDaubert, 509 U.S. at 592 n.10

• Has the theory or technique can be or has been tested?

• Has it been subjected to peer review and publication?

• Does the technique have a known or potential rate of error and are there are standards controlling its operation?

• Does the theory or technique enjoys general acceptance within a relevant scientific community?

Scientists and legal scholars

seeking standards of practice and a common

voice and language

Critical voice of caregivers, stakeholders, and the public in matters

of neuroscience discovery

Knowledge Cycle

Engaged world press dedicated to a close partnership between

science and journalism

Responsibility: Scholars in Neuroscience,

the Humanities and Law• Moral efficacy

Ensure the right questions are asked.

• Observation Provide impartial observation.

• Linkage Provide guidance in linking moral beliefs to moral theory and

tradition.

• Bridges Introduce new approaches that facilitate and support improved

science literacy, and wise acceptance and measured introduction of new technology.

Adapted from Illes, Racine, Kirschen, in Neuroethics: Defining the Issues in Theory, Practice and Policy,Oxford University Press, 2006

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Conclusions

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Impart

knowledge

Acknowledgments

Program in Neuroethics

http://neuroethics.stanford.edu

The Greenwall Foundation

The Dana Foundation

NIH/NINDS #NS045831