[Diagnostic imaging of lying].

Functional diagnostic imaging has been applied in neuropsychology for more than two decades. Nowadays, the functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) seems to be the most important technique. Brain imaging in lying has been performed and discussed since 2001. There are postulates to use fMRI for forensic purposes, as well as commercially, e.g. testing the loyalty of employees, especially because of the limitations of traditional polygraph in some cases. In USA fMRI is performed in truthfulness/lying assessment by at least two commercial companies. Those applications are a matter of heated debate of practitioners, lawyers and specialists of ethics. The opponents of fMRI use for forensic purposes indicate the lack of common agreement on it and the lack of wide recognition and insufficient standardisation. Therefore it cannot serve as a forensic proof, yet. However, considering the development of MRI and a high failure rate of traditional polygraphy, forensic applications of MRI seem to be highly probable in future.