Constructing the Organ of Deceit
The Rhetoric of fMRI and Brain Fingerprinting in Post-9/11 America
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5337396 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Melissa Littlefield (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Melissa M Littlefield (University of Illinois System, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 365-392 |
| Publication date | 2009-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Science Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0162243908328756 |
| OpenAlex | W2024724387 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 18 |
| References cited | 46 |
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and the electroencephalography (EEG)-based technology of Brain Fingerprinting have been hailed as the next, best technologies for lie detection in America, particularly in the context of post-9/11 anxiety. In scientific journals and the popular press, each has been juxtaposed and deemed superior to traditional polygraphy, which measures changes in the autonomic nervous system and correlates these fluctuations with emotions such as anxiety, fear, and guilt. The author contends that the juxtaposition of polygraphy and brain-based detection is a rhetorical strategy that foregrounds the corrective advantage of brain-based techniques, creates an artificial rupture between contiguous technologies, and ignores the shared assumptions foundational to fMRI, EEG, and two older ``truth telling'' technologies: polygraphy and fingerprinting. Far from describing the brain and its functions, fMRI and Brain Fingerprinting produce models of the brain that reinforce social notions of deception, truth, and deviance
Anxiety · Brain activity and meditation · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Deception · Electroencephalography · Functional magnetic resonance imaging · Lie detection · Rhetorical question · Social anxiety · Computer Science · Deception detection and forensic psychology · Memory Processes and Influences · Neuroscience · Psychology · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending · Social Psychology
A multiple software approach to understanding values
Connecting neuroscience and law
Forensic evidence
Modes of visual framing in neuropsychological deception detection research
Constituting ‘Visual Attention’
Ambivalence, equivocation and the politics of experimental knowledge
Recent rhetorical studies in public understanding of science
Control and resistance in the psychology of lying
The brain as an instrument
Neuroscience and subjectivity
Measurement devices and the psychophysiology of consumer behaviour
Preemptive „screening for malintent“
A paedophile scan to prevent child sexual abuse in child care? A thought experiment to problematize the notion of alignment in Responsible Research and Innovation
Performance, Spectacle, Affect
The plastic brain
Reading the Human Brain
The Imaginary of Plasticity
The social life of the brain
Risk Society
Detective fiction and the rise of forensic science
Picturing Personhood
Suspect Identities
Inhibition
The seven sins of memory
Lying
The visible human project
Brains, Maps and the New Territory of Psychology
Global Nature, Global Culture
From brainbank to database
Testing Testing
Imprint of the Raj
Lying
Risk society
Words and Things
Images Are Not the (Only) Truth
Suspect Technologies
Making Images/Making Bodies
A Framework for Analyzing Dialogues over the Acceptability of Controversial Technologies
A Social History of Untruth
| Unique citing works | 18 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,13 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2026 (17) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 17 |