Liars could give themselves away by their facial expressions or changes in vocal pitch yet their lies are correctly caught only fifty percent of the time. Potentially upping the detection statistics are people who have lost their ability to understand language. One study has shown that despite their condition of aphasia, brought about by stroke or other forms of brain damage, aphasics are somehow superior at perceiving deception.
Pitting ten aphasics against ten sufferers of other brain-damage types and ten healthy subjects, all matched for age, gender, and IQ, the study involved watching the reaction of nurses who were tested on their ability to remain calm when shown two opposing visuals: pleasant scenery versus disturbing medical scenes.
Whilst the aphasics had suffered damage to the left-brain language centers, the ten others had right-brain damage but could still understand or speak. When the aphasics based their judging on facial and verbal cues they were right sixty percent of the time, but when they judged on facial expressions alone they were right seventy-three percent or close to three-quarters of the time. The non-aphasics performed as expected – getting it right only half the time.
How could people who have lost their language-understanding ability be so good at detecting lies? Why are they better at picking up the subtleties disconnecting what is being said with what is being felt?
One possibility is that strokes or other types of damage to brain areas in charge of language stimulate the development of compensatory skills for non-verbal communication. Another is that these skills are inherent yet have remained dormant in non-use, camouflaged by our other communication skills. After all, we are more likely to listen to language than to scrutinize expressions.
MSU Bachelor in Health Science Management (Hons)
MSU Bachelor in Psychology (Hons)
MSU Bachelor in Cardiovascular Technology (Hons)
MSU Bachelor in English Language and Literature Studies (Hons)
MSU Diploma in Translation and Interpreting
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Liars could give themselves away by their facial expressions or changes in vocal pitch yet their lies are correctly caught only fifty percent of the time. Potentially upping the detection statistics are people who have lost their ability to understand language. One study has shown that despite their condition of aphasia, brought about by stroke or other forms of brain damage, aphasics are somehow superior at perceiving deception.
Pitting ten aphasics against ten sufferers of other brain-damage types and ten healthy subjects, all matched for age, gender, and IQ, the study involved watching the reaction of nurses who were tested on their ability to remain calm when shown two opposing visuals: pleasant scenery versus disturbing medical scenes.
Whilst the aphasics had suffered damage to the left-brain language centers, the ten others had right-brain damage but could still understand or speak. When the aphasics based their judging on facial and verbal cues they were right sixty percent of the time, but when they judged on facial expressions alone they were right seventy-three percent or close to three-quarters of the time. The non-aphasics performed as expected – getting it right only half the time.
How could people who have lost their language-understanding ability be so good at detecting lies? Why are they better at picking up the subtleties disconnecting what is being said with what is being felt?
One possibility is that strokes or other types of damage to brain areas in charge of language stimulate the development of compensatory skills for non-verbal communication. Another is that these skills are inherent yet have remained dormant in non-use, camouflaged by our other communication skills. After all, we are more likely to listen to language than to scrutinize expressions.
MSU Bachelor in Health Science Management (Hons)
MSU Bachelor in Psychology (Hons)
MSU Bachelor in Cardiovascular Technology (Hons)
MSU Bachelor in English Language and Literature Studies (Hons)
MSU Diploma in Translation and Interpreting