Brain Bluffs Humans Differently Than Machines

60-Second Science | Mind & Brain

The temporal parietal junctions of poker players behaved differently when they were bluffing another human versus bluffing a computer. Cynthia Graber reports.

July 5, 2012?|

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You talk to a friend. Then you talk to Siri on the iPhone. Does your brain function differently when interacting with a machine versus another person? According to a recent study, there might be one small brain region dedicated to dealing only with people ? in order to lie to them.

Researchers had 18 subjects play poker against a variety of human and computer opponents. The participants were encouraged to bluff ? they?d get money if their bluffs were successful.

Sometimes they were given a weak hand. The researchers evaluated functional MRI signals of the players? brains. Could they tell by looking at the brain patterns whether the player was about to bluff a human?

They found that most regions of the brain that have been previously identified with social interactions lit up regardless of whether the subject was playing a person or a machine. But one small region ? the temporal parietal junction, or TPJ ? seemed to activate only when participants contemplated bluffing another human being.

The study was published in the journal Science. [R. McKell Carter et al, A Distinct Role of the Temporal-parietal Junction in Predicting Socially Guided Decisions]

Says study author Scott Huettel, ?Social information may cause our brains to play by different rules than non-social information.? At least when it comes to deception.

?Cynthia Graber

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]

Audio clip of Scott Huettel courtesy of Science/AAAS.
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Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=86455b8788a160d5f8e53d8b14d3ac2e

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