Attempting to hide our real thoughts: Electrophysiological evidence from truthful and deceptive responses during evaluation

This study seeks to investigate neural activity during a deceptive evaluation process. Attractive and unattractive facial photos were presented to participants who were then asked to evaluate and respond to these photos according to different cues (truthfulness or deceptiveness). Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) activities were recorded while participants offered their truthful or deceptive responses based on their evaluations. Consistent with previous results on the old/new paradigm, deceptive responses required greater cognitive endeavor, as indicated by a larger later positive component (LPC). Meanwhile, deceptive responses on attractive items were more easily offered than deceptive replies on unattractive items, as indicated by smaller LPCs. Truthfulness towards attractive items was more easily conveyed than truthfulness towards unattractive items, as indicated by the smaller contingent negative variation (CNV). The potential reasons for these results are discussed.