United Press International
Tuesday, November 1, 2005

HONOLULU, Oct 31, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- University of Texas researchers say changes in gastric physiology perform better than standard polygraph methods in determining when a person is lying.

To test their hypothesis that the gastrointestinal tract is uniquely sensitive to mental stress because of the communication between the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system, researchers recruited 16 healthy volunteers to undergo simultaneous electrogastrogram, or EGG, and electrocardiogram, EKG, recordings for three periods.

The researchers found both lying and truth telling affected cardiac symptoms, while the act of lying was also associated with gastric symptoms. The EGG showed a significant decrease in the percentage of normal gastric slow waves when the subject was lying that corresponded to a significant increase in the average heart rate during the same situation.

"We concluded that the addition of the EGG to standard polygraph methods has clear value in improving the accuracy of current lie detectors," said Dr. Pankaj Pasricha of the UT Medical Branch. "The communication between the big brain and the little brain in the stomach can be complex and merits further study."

The research was presented Monday during the 70th Annual Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology in Honolulu.

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