Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Scientist: MRIs Can Serve As Lie Detectors (AP): AP - A scientist at the Medical University of South Carolina has found that magnetic resonance imaging machines also can serve as lie detectors.(Via Yahoo! News - Science.) Having just been subject to my second knee MRI in 10 years, I think that the idea using an MRI on a potentially hostile subject is very problematic. A successful MRI needs total cooperation from the subject, as the article eventually concedes. Close proximity to a huge rotating magnet is not especially relaxing, and is indeed potentially dangerous, for instance if the subject has unknown ferromagnetic material in their body. A scared subject might avoid mentioning something like that and suffer serious injury or worse. I'm actually surprised that these experiments made it past the IRB of the researcher's institution, given that MRIs are not totally risk-free and that the potential medical benefits from the results of this research seem meager. 12:02:47 AM