4e31d3d551d0064ecd16869b8b966b3c.jpg

Psychologist-inventor seeks a few good liars

By Audrey Levine Staff Writer
   HILLSBOROUGH — The brain knows what the body may try to ignore, and Dr. Michael Tansey, of Hillsborough, is looking for a few good liars to prove it.
   The volunteers will test his “TruthScan,” a computerized program he says can distinguish a lie from the truth by digitally reading brainwaves.
   ”Accuracy is a priority (with this technology),” he said. “This could have a profound effect on society.”
   The system, which is run on a portable IBM computer, requires test subjects to answer a series of questions with one-word answers – either “yes,” “no,” “true” or “false” – while wearing three small sensors, one on each ear and another on top of the head. Dr. Tansey said the questions are all extremely simple, with the answer always being obvious as soon as the last word is spoken by the computerized voice that reads all the questions.
   Questions vary from asking if the fruit that grows on a peach tree is a peach to questioning whether certain listed animals are fish.
   ”The test questions are always the same among subjects,” Dr. Tansey said. “As soon as you hear the last word of the question, the answer will be obvious.”
   Subjects, Dr. Tansey said, sit across from the computer and are videotaped as they speak their answers to prove that they were not coerced into performing the test. Behind the computer, the person running the test enters the given answers into the system, but does not speak so as to eliminate the possibility of operator bias, he said.
   ”They’re on video so you know if they are trying to evade the questions,” he said of the program that he began developing in 1995.
   The program, Dr. Tansey said, relies on the fact that brainwaves can show when a person is lying, even if there are no outward physical signs of false answers. In past tests, in which the close to 30 subjects were required to answer “yes” to a series of nine questions – only one of which was actually true – the TruthScan program created a clear distinction between the lies and the truth, which was then charted to show the separation.
   Once more trials are completed, Dr. Tansey said, this program could be used to replace the standard polygraph test, and be acceptable in courts, unlike the polygraph tests, which measure physiological responses, such as blood pressure and pulse.
   ”We measure the primary process — the brain,” he said. “People can try to alter what they’re doing in a polygraph. But you’re not faster than your brain.”
   The idea for the TruthScan system came to Dr. Tansey following years of work studying brainwaves and using the information to treat patients with neurological disorders, including attention deficit disorder (AD), Tourette’s syndrome and epilepsy.
   ”Someone said to me, ‘You can track the mind — do you think you can know if someone is lying?’” he said. “I said, ‘That’s a good question.’ We’re really close now. This is the outgrowth of 30 years of increasing work on digital brainwave analysis.”
   Though Dr. Tansey said he is proud of the TruthScan system itself, his heart really lies in the work he does to improve the quality of life for those with neurological disorders.
   ”Turning lives around, that is what warms my heart,” he said.
   After receiving a doctorate in clinical psychology, with a specialty in child clinical psychology, Dr. Tansey said he began working with biofeedback, which measures bodily functions and helps a patient become more aware of conscious and unconscious physiological activities. During his work, he said, he noticed that people were combining brainwave results to create an average reading without looking at each wave separately to determine behavior.
   ”Therefore they don’t know what’s exactly going on because they are homogenizing the brainwaves,” he said. “The digital work is so powerful because we can see where the imbalances are and can correct them.”
   Dr. Tansey decided to look directly at individual waves to determine activity, focusing on wave surges in the brains of those with neurological disorders. In weekly sessions, Dr. Tansey works with people of all ages and disorders to help them engage thought and muscular activity to calm the surges in waves, which come from hyperactivity and other symptoms of neurological disorders.
   ”People are not aware of their brain states when they are walking around,” he said. “I can teach them to sense them. As the brain shifts in a dysfunctional way, I can teach them to shift it back. The person sits with eyes closed. I am teaching the person to shift to a normal brain wave.”
   Dr. Tansey said such treatments helped one young patient with epilepsy go about seven days without a seizure, and another with attention deficit disorder maintain concentration long enough to read a 300-page book in two days.
   The 45-minute sessions, Dr. Tansey said, last on average about 15 weeks, depending on the severity of the disorder, and he often begins to see results after four or five sessions.
   Dr. Tansey said he has patented digital encephalographic equipment to track the brain states, which he uses in the sessions with people of all ages and all neurological disorders.
   His office, which he moved into about two years ago, is located at the Primary Care Center, in Hillsborough Centre on Route 206.
   Overall, Dr. Tansey said he loves the work he does and is very proud of the techniques he has developed and what he has accomplished in making lives better for those dealing with neurological disorders.
   ”I’m just basically a curious guy, and I like finding out more,” he said. “But there is no better feeling than knowing you turned a life around.”
   Dr. Tansey said he is currently still looking for people of all ages to participate in the TruthScan study. For more information, call 908-458-3939.