The Art of Lying.

Lying is a complex job- a lot more complicated than telling the truth. Firstly you have to identify the truthful response and inhibit it – stop yourself from saying it. Then you need to select a response that’s at odds with the truth and make sure it’s consistent with any other answers that you have given – or about to give. It’s this complexity – the number of steps involved – that makes working out what’s going on in your mind a particularly difficult task. When someone is lying they have to multitask- the attention span given to any one task drops and so does the electrical strength of the P300 pulse signal in the brain measured by an EEG. Lie detectors work on this principle, the sensors strapped to your body/arms measure heart rate, breathing rate, BP and sweat production rate. Initially your base pattern is established as a benchmark. When you are questioned and the variations of the base pattern crop up on the screen or styluses recording it then you are lying. Yoga and meditation can help defeat a lie detector test. (BBC & Aich)