A pathological lying is a phenomenon when it’s easier for someone to tell a falsehood. This might happen because of unusual imbalance of brain matter, namely the gray matter

Lying is unique phenomenon. We cannot judge weather it’s an act of absolutely right nor absolutely wrong. Despite the moral point of view, lying actually is a complex action, especially if we take a closer look from the neuro-research field. From this point a view, we come to the term of pathological lying. Unlike any other kinds of lying, pathological lying may stem from unusual imbalance of brain matter. This conclusion came from a recent study done by scientist at the University of Southern California. A doctoral student Yaling Yang scanned the brains of 12 self-described pathological liars as well as other volunteer who had no history of deception, as a control group. As the result of this study, Yang came out with a conclusion that the liar’s brain had 22% more white matter in the prefrontal region that governs decision-making and judgment. This white matter support the wiring among neuron, and sometimes called gray matter

This kind of lying is very complex. “It’s easier for them to tell lies” Yang says, because of excessive white matter creates abundance of connections among otherwise contradictory, compartmentalized data. Further studies are still needed to tell if the fabricators are born with more white matter or develop it as a result of frequent minor falsehood.

In another study, other scientist who have done functional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans of people lying in real time also point out to excessive activation in prefrontal lobes and say the pattern of activity can serve as a reliable detectors of deception. If that the case, in the future scanners can be transferred from a lab bench to the court bench