Everyone lies now and again, there's no avoiding that. But what if a magnet helmet (or similar device) could impair your ability to deceive? It seems possible -- recent research has found that stimulating a particular region of the brain makes it harder for a person to create a fake story rather than simply remember the truth.
Lying is thought to involve inhibiting our normal propensity to truth-telling, so Inga Karton's team at the University of Tartu in Estonia reasoned that dampening brain activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) - which is involved in cognitive control - might alter the likelihood of lying.
The researchers asked 16 volunteers to name the colour of a disc on a computer screen after receiving transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to dampen activity in their DLPFC. They were given the option to lie or answer honestly. The task was then repeated following TMS of the parietal cortex - a part of the brain unassociated with cognitive control. The volunteers gave significantly fewer truthful answers after TMS of the left DLPFC - but suppressing the right DLPFC increased the number of true responses.
Source: New Scientist, September 3, 2011
The size of this study was very small so it's impossible to say for sure whether this is definitely a way to inhibit lying. It is, however, another firm piece of evidence for the materiality of the mind. What we have here is cognition, moral choice, planning, and decision-making all being influenced by a physical, natural force.
In fact, it appears that a physical force could physically prevent us from making the "wrong" moral choice. What sort of implications might that have for free will? It certainly argues against souls and any other "immaterial" explanations for minds and moral decision-making.
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