It takes just 300 ms to our brain to understand whether one person's facial mimic and body language are consistent with her inner feelings and mental states or with a verbal description of her feelings and mentations. And, when they are not, that person's verbal message has a short life in our brain. Indeed, our brain very quickly compares the inputs deriving from areas processing facial expressions, and face and body mimics (including the mirror neurons system) with the visceral feelings of our affective memory for an immediate control, thus realizing to have caught a liar.
The study was carried out by the Department of Psychology of the Bicocca University of Milan, in collaboration with the Department of Neuroscience of Parma University, the Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology of CNR, and the Department of Cognitive Science of the University of California at San Diego.
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