The fascination of how the brain process objective information is not new to the scientific scene.  Many TV shows such as Lie to Me and court drama series have been zeroing in on this via micro facial expressions of emotion and body language.

Assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, Ming Meng has come up with some interesting findings in regards to the brain’s organization of these two categories and the possible role they play in autism.

Meng uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), computer vision, and psychophysics to delve into the function of the brain and the processes of our visual world.

EurekaAlert.com commented on Meng and his colleague’s reserach, which was published on January 4th in the Proceedings of Royal Society B (online edition).  Meng’s research focused on how the brain is organized to process visual information particularly the human face.

“We needed to study the full spectrum; the stimuli that make an image look like a face but not necessarily a face. These results would show the subtle differences between the left and right side of the brain as they dealt with this range of images.” Meng noted.  Looking at how the brain processes faces is Meng’s key to unlocking the mysteries of the left brain/right brain paradigm.

The findings of his study as well as similar studies on the face shed light into the complex world of autism, people with face processing deficits, which also make understanding and recognizing emotions difficult.  Meng posits that the reason for social interaction problems especially among autistic children could be a problem with face perception.

“Our results suggest the left side of the brain is processing the external physical input which resolves into a ‘grey scale’ while the right brain is underlying the final decision of whether or not it is a face.”

What are your thoughts on this study?  Do you think it is compounding upon new information or just restating old facts?

Dr. O’Sullivan is widely known for her work with Dr. Paul Ekman on the “Wizards Project”, where they identified Truth Wizards. Truth Wizards are those that are exceptionally good at detecting deception. One of these truth wizards, Eyes for Lies, has a popular blog where she comments on current new events.

We came across this informative lecture by Dr. O’Sullivan where she speaks about the TV show “Lie to Me” and her career researching human emotion and lie detection.

Humintell director Dr. Matsumoto has also done research with Dr. O’Sullivan. Notably in 2008, they co-wrote a chapter in the Handbook of Emotion called Facial Expressions of Emotion. The chapter was written with other researchers Dr. Dacher Keltner, Dr. Michelle N. Shiota, and Dr. Mark Frank. You can read the complete chapter here.

Thanks to Steve for the link!

Click here to view the embedded video.

While Season 4 of Lie to Me is up in the air, Kelli Foster will appear on the next episode of Criminal Minds, airing April 6th.

The show is a fictional drama that follows FBI agents from the Behavioral Analysis Unit. It airs on CBS Wednesday nights.

Take a look at the preview below

Click here to view the embedded video.

In terms of the scientific aspect, the writers did get a big part of the plot correct. Before Claire’s death, she had asked Dr. Lightman and Dr. Foster to try and figure out whether or not Zack (whom she developed the site with) was planning to push her out of the company.  When they interview him, he says that Claire is “safe,” but with a contemptuous look on his face, which Dr. Lightman correctly identifies as a red flag.

One irritating part happens when Dr. Lightman tries to get some information out of Zach about Claire’s murder. He tells Zach “every genius has his weakness” in order to intimidate him. The expression Zach makes afterwards (a smirk, perhaps) is then followed by flashes of photos with the same expression from the media.

This is a tactic that Lie to Me has employed in previous episodes, though the writers had stopped doing that in the last couple of weeks.  While the meaning of the expression  is a bit more clear here than it was during the other times the show has done this, it still feels like it doesn’t fit.

The plot of “Killer App,” while predictable, wasn’t too terrible. With Facebook such a huge part of our lives these days, it made sense for Lie to Me to come up with a storyline related to social networking. The fact that Dr. Foster has a strong emotional connection to the case also adds an interesting dimension to the plot.

While the episode doesn’t quite live up to what a typical “season finale” should be like (the kind that leaves you begging for the next season,) it wasn’t a bad episode either.

Did you watch Lie to Me this week? What did you think?

What stands out the most about this episode is how insensitive Dr. Lightman is during the investigation. The issue of paternity is very private, and something that a family would likely not want to be talked about in the open. Yet, when Dr. Lightman and Dr. Foster go to interrogate Dr. Heaton (Collette’s OB-GYN) about Kimmy’s biological father, they make a big scene at his clinic, to the point where one of his patients walks out.

This sort of spectacle would never happen in real life. The work that we do here at Humintell is always conducted in a professional manner and we certainly do not conduct our own interrogations.

As this season of Lie to Me continues, Dr. Lightman is becoming more and more obnoxious. While we hope that viewers would easily recognize that we do not conduct our work in that manner, it is still bothersome to see the writers depict it that way.

A brief exchange between Dr. Lightman and Emily brings up the issue of how to get someone to reveal their true emotions.

He says “I shake people up until they lose control and forget to hide their emotions”. Do you think that this is an effective way to find out the truth about what someone is saying and feeling?

Our research has shown the most effective way to get the whole truth from someone is by building rapport. Building rapport involves the ability to read emotions in others well and thus, we emphasize the importance of being able to read facial expressions of emotions in others.

There isn’t much to say about this episode that wouldn’t seem redundant. Each episode this season, with very few exceptions, has portrayed inaccurate scientific information and be geared more towards an audience that likes dramatic scenes and sarcastic characters.

Did you watch Lie to Me this week? What did you think?

The plot of “Saved” is quite predictable. However, this episode does get one piece of science accurate, which makes it slightly better than the last two episodes.

Dr. Lightman points out the accidental shoulder shrug that Kent makes when declaring that Ilene, his sister, is a hero. We have previously blogged about the significance of an accidental shoulder shrug when making a statement; when you see an individual shrugging while making a positive statement, it may mean that the speaker has no faith in the assertion that they are making.

In the following clip, Lightman comes to the conclusion that the shoulder shrug means that Kent does not truly believe Ilene to be a hero.

Although the writers got the shoulder shrug correct, they inaccurately identified an expression of fear several times.

In this next clip, Dr. Lightman is confronting Ilene about her particularly strange interest in car accidents. He points out that her face says that she is afraid. What do you think her face is saying in this clip? It doesn’t look like fear and even Dr. Paul Ekman, scientific consultant to the show, admits in his blog that her expression was not fear.Why do you think that Lie to Me producers and writers would have a scientific consultant, if even simple expressions such as these are inaccurately portrayed?

A true expression of fear involves the raising of the eyebrows while simultaneously bringing them together, making the brows more straight rather than rounded how they are in surprise. The lips are stretch horizontally and generally there is a lot of white above the eyes. Take a look at another episode of Lie to Me where they mistakenly showed fear.

Though this episode wasn’t quite as revoltingly bad as the previous two, it isn’t exactly an example of quality scriptwriting.

Did you watch Lie to Me this week? What did you think?

You can watch the whole episode here

When they interview Ingrid, one of George’s ex-wives, Torres says that her slow breaths and racing heart are signs of hate. This is inaccurate, since there is no universal expression of hatred.

What is irritating about this episode is the fact that The Lightman Group is acting more like a private detective agency than a scientific one. Dr. Lightman and Dr. Foster pretend to be a married couple in order to get more information about George’s fraudulent schemes.

Another ridiculous part of the episode involves George and his lawyer being interviewed in the “glass room.” Once Dr. Lightman is able to coax the story of the fraudulent scheme out of them, he has one of the screens go up to reveal three of the women he conned, watching in on the whole thing. The scene feels much like a Maury Povich episode, when someone is brought on the show to talk about another person, and that person is watching the whole thing from a back room. It is quite disheartening to see the show use such tacky measures to advance the plot, which isn’t even that great to begin with.

Furthermore, the writers once again revert to flashing photos from the media after a character makes a certain expression. For one, George’s expression in the following clip doesn’t even match the expressions in the photographs that follow.

Also, as usual, there is no explanation for what the expression even means. Is it meant to show guilt? If so, it is inaccurate to imply that guilt is expressed the same way universally.

As we said yesterday, the second half of Lie to Me’s third season started off terribly, and this episode is no better. Even though more science is talked about, the information is inaccurate, which is just as bad (or perhaps even worse) than neglecting it all together. If this is the quality of writing that Fox is continuing with throughout the rest of the season, they may as well cancel Lie to Me altogether.

Did you watch “Rebound?” What did you think?

In the first of two of this week’s episodes, “Funhouse,” The Lightman Group is approached by Emily’s friend, Amanda, whose father has been institutionalized in a mental hospital for 5 years. She is suspicious of the hospital, because of the fact that her father (Wayne) has been there for so long and is not getting any better.

We had hoped that, with the last episode before the break, Lie to Me was listening to its fans and incorporating more scientific information into their story lines.

However, the following clip shows Lightman and his cohorts acting more like psychics than scientists, similar to previous episodes of this season.

Even Dr. Grandon points out that they are acting as if they can read his mind. Quite a disappointing beginning for the show’s return.

(SPOILER ALERT)

The discovery at the end of the case is even more embarrassing. A sister going so far as to poison her brother, put her niece in danger, and send him to a mental institution for years, all in the name of horses? This seems a bit ridiculous; if the show is going to neglect the science altogether, they could at least write some decent plot lines.

Did you watch “Funhouse”? What did you think?

Overall, we think this episode is a little disappointing beginning to the second half of the third season. Will episode 10 make up for it? Check back with us tomorrow for our review of this week’s second episode!

In this episode, it’s quite noticeable that the writers are making an attempt to incorporate a bit more of the science involved with this field.

For example, in the following clip, Loker points out that Dr. Lightman has determined a baseline for the two brothers he is interrogating. This baseline gives the interrogator a comparison point. From this, he or she is able to detect when the subject’s nonverbal communication deviates from their normal behavior.

However, as you can see in this next clip, there are still instances where the writers go back to old tactics. When Dr. Lightman brings Jim (one of the owners of the restaurant) in to identify the suspect in a lineup, he claims that one of the men in the lineup recognizes him. However, how he arrives to that conclusion isn’t apparent. At the end of the clip, photos from the media are flashed that match the expression on Jim’s face. The meaning behind this expression is never stated or implied.

As a whole, this episode is a slight improvement from earlier episodes this season, in regards to the way the science behind reading nonverbal communication is incorporated. The plot isn’t too terrible, either.

Does this mean that the writers are listening to their audience? We hope so!

What did you think of this week’s Lie to Me? If you haven’t already, you may view the episode here.

Dr. Lightman once again evades law enforcement in order to solve the case. His daughter, Emily, almost ran over Veronica. When she notices that Veronica is a little ‘off,’ she calls her father. Veronica reveals her fear of Charlie, and Dr. Lightman decides to help figure out who Charlie is and if he is really a murderer.

While this case should really be given to the police, he asks Dr. Foster not to report Veronica. As we have stated previously, our work is not done behind the backs of law enforcement. We do not conduct our own investigations; rather, we aid law enforcement so that they can do their jobs.

In the following clip, Dr. Lightman visits Veronica’s old apartment, where her brother –in-law now lives. When he talks about having to put Veronica in a care home, Dr. Lightman sees shame on his face.

In the previous episode, Dr. Lightman also claims a woman’s look to be that of shame, and as we stated in that blog post, there is no universal expression for shame. (Sadness, however, is expressed the same way universally.)

Dr. Ekman, the scientific consultant to this show, also seems to suggest in his blog that there is a universal expression of shame, which he says is the same expression as sadness. However, we have seen no scientific evidence suggesting his point and would be interested in seeing the research that backs his statements.

When interrogating one of the doctors from the care home, Dr. Foster deduces that he is being both condescending and deceptive. While the condescending tone is apparent, it does not necessarily mean that he is being deceptive. Remember, there is no facial expression or tone of voice that is absolutely indicative of a lie.

From a dramatic perspective, the plot is a little choppy, but isn’t terrible. However, the usual inaccuracies detract from what otherwise wouldn’t be too terrible of a show.

Did you watch this week’s Lie to Me? What did you think? If you have not seen the episode yet, you may watch it here.