Disrupting dorsolateral prefrontal cortex by rTMS reduces the P300 based marker of deception

OBJECTIVE Quite many studies have revealed certain brain-process signatures indicative of subject's deceptive behavior. These signatures are neural correlates of deception. However, much less is known about whether these signatures can be modified by noninvasive brain stimulation techniques representing methods of causal intervention of brain processes and the corresponding behavior. Our purpose was to explore whether such methods have an effect on these signatures. METHODS It is well known that electroencephalographic event-related potential component, P300, is sensitive to perception of critical items in a concealed information test, one of the central methods in deception studies. We examined whether the relative level of expression of P300 as a neural marker of deception can be manipulated by means of noninvasive neuromodulation. We used EEG/ERP recording combined with (i) neuronavigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and (ii) concealed information detection test. An opportunistically recruited volunteer group of normal adults formed our experimental group. RESULTS We show that offline rTMS to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex attenuated relative P300 amplitude in response to the critical items compared to the neutral items. CONCLUSION Noninvasive prefrontal cortex excitability disruption by rTMS can be used to manipulate the sensitivity of ERP signatures of deception to critical items in a concealment-based variant of lie detection test.