Instant Polygraph Test Developed

Mayo Clinic researchers have developed an instant “lie detector” technique that picks up mini hot flushes around the eyes and could lead to such tests becoming standard at airport check-ins.

The team reported in the Jan. 3 issue of Nature that it used a high-definition thermal-imaging camera to scan faces to see if people blush when answering a question. In theory, blood should rush to the eye area of most people who are lying, researcher James Levine said, while the innocent remain coolly and calmly unaffected. Experiments in which 20 people were randomly asked to stab a mannequin, rob it of $20 and then profess their innocence showed the technique to be as effective as existing polygraph tests. Of course, just as polygraphs can be fooled, so too can this technique. In tests, the thermal camera correctly picked out 75% of the guilty individuals and 90% of the innocent, a control group that had no knowledge of the mock crime.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II.