Langleben, Daniel D
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Publication Emotional Graphic Cigarette Warning Labels Reduce the Electrophysiological Brain Response to Smoking Cues(2015-03-01) Wang, An-Li; Romer, Daniel; Turetsky, Bruce I; Gur, Ruben; Langleben, Daniel D; Elman, IgorThere is an ongoing public debate about the new graphic warning labels (GWLs) that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposes to place on cigarette packs. Tobacco companies argued that the strongly emotional images FDA proposed to include in the GWLs encroached on their constitutional rights. The court ruled that FDA did not provide sufficient scientific evidence of compelling public interest in such encroachment. This study's objectives were to examine the effects of the GWLs on the electrophysiological and behavioral correlates of smoking addiction and to determine whether labels rated higher on the emotional reaction (ER) scale are associated with greater effects. We studied 25 non-treatment-seeking smokers. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants viewed a random sequence of paired images, in which visual smoking (Cues) or non-smoking (non-Cues) images were preceded by GWLs or neutral images. Participants reported their cigarette craving after viewing each pair. Dependent variables were magnitude of P300 ERPs and self-reported cigarette craving in response to Cues. We found that subjective craving response to Cues was significantly reduced by preceding GWLs, whereas the P300 amplitude response to Cues was reduced only by preceding GWLs rated high on the ER scale. In conclusion, our study provides experimental neuroscience evidence that weighs in on the ongoing public and legal debate about how to balance the constitutional and public health aspects of the FDA-proposed GWLs. The high toll of smoking-related illness and death adds urgency to the debate and prompts consideration of our findings while longitudinal studies of GWLs are underway.Publication True lies: delusions and lie-detection technology(2006-10-01) Langleben, Daniel; Dattilio, Frank M; Guthei, Thomas GLegally relevant lying is an intentional attempt to convince another of the truth of a proposition the liar believes to be false. Delusion is an unintentional product of impaired reality testing that occurs in a range of psychiatric conditions and psychological states, some of which could be clinically subtle, since deception, truth and delusion differ in the intent rather than reality testing criterion. Deception and delusion are influenced by the degree of congruence between subjective and objective reality and are probably mutually exclusive. Thus, a delusion could lead to an objectively false statement, that could nevertheless be subjectively true and indistinguishable from truth by its psychophysiological (i.e., the polygraph) signature. This article presents a relevant case as a starting point of an examination of the current and future role of neurophysiological (i.e., functional brain imaging) measurements in the detection of deception. The authors incorporate the recent data on functional brain imaging to the neuroanatomical mechanisms of true and false recall, behavioral regulation and deception into a testable model that could redefine deception and separate it from delusions on the basis of objective functional brain imaging measures.Publication Relative Function: Nuclear Brain Imaging in United States Courts(2011-01-01) Rushing, Susan E; Langleben, Daniel DNeuropsychological testing--medical imaging of the brain structure and function--allows the expert to inform the court on the brain structure and function of the forensic examinee. Supported by extensive clinical use, neuropsychological testing and structural imaging in the form of computerized tomography and structural magnetic resonance imaging have achieved general acceptance in court. However, functional imaging such as functional MRI and nuclear medicine techniques, such as positron emission tomography (PET), have faced more admissibility challenges. While functional imaging is becoming an increasingly important tool in assessing neuropsychiatric illness, we surmise that evidentiary challenges are largely related to the phase of trial in which the nuclear study is offered as evidence. This article will review the basic science of functional nuclear imaging including PET and single photon emission computed tomography. We will then review cases where admissibility of these techniques has been challenged and consider whether and how nuclear brain imaging can influence the outcome of the trial.Publication Emerging neurotechnologies for lie-detection: promises and perils(2005-03-01) Wolpe, Paul Root; Foster, Kenneth; Langleben, Daniel D.Detection of deception and confirmation of truth telling with conventional polygraphy raised a host of technical and ethical issues. Recently, newer methods of recording electromagnetic signals from the brain show promise in permitting the detection of deception or truth telling. Some are even being promoted as more accurate than conventional polygraphy. While the new technologies raise issues of personal privacy, acceptable forensic application, and other social issues, the focus of this paper is the technical limitations of the developing technology. Those limitations include the measurement validity of the new technologies, which remains largely unknown. Another set of questions pertains to the psychological paradigms used to model or constrain the target behavior. Finally, there is little standardization in the field, and the vulnerability of the techniques to countermeasures is unknown. Premature application of these technologies outside of research settings should be resisted, and the social conversation about the appropriate parameters of its civil, forensic, and security use should begin.Publication Detection of Deception with fMRI: Are we there yet?(2008-02-01) Langleben, Daniel DA decade of spectacular progress in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology and systems neuroscience research has so far yielded few changes in our daily lives. The dearth of clinical applications of this prolific and academically promising research tool began raising the eyebrows of the public and the research funding agencies. This may be one of the reasons for the enthusiasm and interest paid to the growing body of literature suggesting that blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI of the brain could be sensitive to the differences between lie and truth. The word 'differences' is critical here since it refers to the often-ignored core concept of BOLD fMRI: it is only sensitive to differences between two brain states. Thus, available studies report using fMRI to discriminate between lie and truth or some other comparative state rather than to positively identify deception. This nuance is an example of the extent to which applied neuroscience research does not lend itself to the type of over-simplification that has plagued the interpretation of fMRI-based lie detection by the popular press and the increasingly vocal academic critics. As an early contributor to the modest stream of data on fMRI-based lie detection, I was asked by Dr Aldert Vrij to write a piece in favour of fMRI-based lie detection, to be contrasted with a piece by Dr Sean Spence presenting an opposite point of view (Spence, 2008). This seemingly straightforward task presented two hurdles: having to respond to the popular as well as scientific view of what lie detection with fMRI is and present a wholly positive view of evolving experimental data.Publication Classifying spatial patterns of brain activity with machine learning methods: application to lie detection(2005-11-15) Davatzikos, Christos; Ruparel, Kosha; Fan, Yong; Shen, Dinggang; Gur, Ruben; Langleben, Daniel D.; Acharyya, M.; Loughead, JamesPatterns of brain activity during deception have recently been characterized with fMRI on the multi-subject average group level. The clinical value of fMRI in lie detection will be determined by the ability to detect deception in individual subjects, rather than group averages. High-dimensional non-linear pattern classification methods applied to functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) images were used to discriminate between the spatial patterns of brain activity associated with lie and truth. In 22 participants performing a forced-choice deception task, 99% of the true and false responses were discriminated correctly. Predictive accuracy, assessed by cross-validation in participants not included in training, was 88%. The results demonstrate the potential of non-linear machine learning techniques in lie detection and other possible clinical applications of fMRI in individual subjects, and indicate that accurate clinical tests could be based on measurements of brain function with fMRI.Publication Content Matters: Neuroimaging Investigation of Brain and Behavioral Impact of Televised Anti-Tobacco Public Service Announcements(2013-04-24) Wang, An-Li; Ruparel, Kosha; Loughead, James W; Strasser, Andrew A.; Blady, Shira J; Lynch, Kevin G; Romer, Daniel; Cappella, Joseph N; Lerman, Caryn; Langleben, Daniel DTelevised public service announcements are video ads that are a key component of public health campaigns against smoking. Understanding the neurophysiological correlates of anti-tobacco ads is an important step toward novel objective methods of their evaluation and design. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the brain and behavioral effects of the interaction between content ("argument strength," AS) and format ("message sensation value," MSV) of anti-smoking ads in humans. Seventy-one nontreatment-seeking smokers viewed a sequence of 16 high or 16 low AS ads during an fMRI scan. Dependent variables were brain fMRI signal, the immediate recall of the ads, the immediate change in intentions to quit smoking, and the urine levels of a major nicotine metabolite cotinine at a 1 month follow-up. Whole-brain ANOVA revealed that AS and MSV interacted in the inferior frontal, inferior parietal, and fusiform gyri; the precuneus; and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dMPFC). Regression analysis showed that the activation in the dMPFC predicted the urine cotinine levels 1 month later. These results characterize the key brain regions engaged in the processing of persuasive communications and suggest that brain fMRI response to anti-smoking ads could predict subsequent smoking severity in nontreatment-seeking smokers. Our findings demonstrate the importance of the quality of content for objective ad outcomes and suggest that fMRI investigation may aid the prerelease evaluation of televised public health ads.Publication Telling the truth from lie in individual subjects with fast event-related fMRI(2005-12-01) Langleben, Daniel D.; Bilker, Warren B.; Ruparel, Kosha; Childress, Anna Rose; Busch, Samantha I; Gur, Ruben; Loughead, JamesDeception is a clinically important behavior with poorly understood neurobiological correlates. Published functional MRI (fMRI) data on the brain activity during deception indicates that, on a multisubject group level, lie is distinguished from truth by increased prefrontal and parietal activity. These findings are theoretically important; however, their applied value will be determined by the accuracy of the discrimination between single deceptive and truthful responses in individual subjects. This study presents the first quantitative estimate of the accuracy of fMRI in conjunction with a formal forced-choice paradigm in detecting deception in individual subjects. We used a paradigm balancing the salience of the target cues to elicit deceptive and truthful responses and determined the accuracy of this model in the classification of single lie and truth events. The relative salience of the task cues affected the net activation associated with lie in the superior medial and inferolateral prefrontal cortices. Lie was discriminated from truth on a single-event level with an accuracy of 78%, while the predictive ability expressed as the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) was 85%. Our findings confirm that fMRI, in conjunction with a carefully controlled query procedure, could be used to detect deception in individual subjects. Salience of the task cues is a potential confounding factor in the fMRI pattern attributed to deception in forced choice deception paradigms.Publication Desire Versus Efficacy in Smokers’ Paradoxical Reactions to Pictorial Health Warnings for Cigarettes(2013-01-29) Romer, Daniel; Strasser, Andrew A.; Langleben, Daniel D; Peters, EllenPictorial health warnings on cigarette packs create aversive emotional reactions to smoking and induce thoughts about quitting; however, contrary to models of health behavior change, they do not appear to alter intentions to quit smoking. We propose and test a novel model of intention to quit an addictive habit such as smoking (the efficacy-desire model) that can explain this paradoxical effect. At the core of the model is the prediction that self-efficacy and desire to quit an addictive habit are inversely related. We tested the model in an online experiment that randomly exposed smokers (N = 3297) to a cigarette pack with one of three increasing levels of warning intensity. The results supported the model’s prediction that despite the effects of warnings on aversion to smoking, intention to quit smoking is an inverted U-shape function of the smoker’s self-efficacy for quitting. In addition, smokers with greater (lesser) quit efficacy relative to smoking efficacy increase (decrease) intentions to quit. The findings show that previous failures to observe effects of pictorial warning labels on quit intentions can be explained by the contradictory individual differences that warnings produce. Thus, the model explains the paradoxical finding that quit intentions do not change at the population level, even though smokers recognize the implications of warnings. The model suggests that pictorial warnings are effective for smokers with stronger quit-efficacy beliefs and provides guidance for how cigarette warnings and tobacco control strategies can be designed to help smokers quit.Publication Emotional Reaction Facilitates the Brain and Behavioral Impact of Graphic Cigarette Warning Labels in Smokers(2015-05-01) Wang, An-Li; Romer, Daniel; Giorno, Mario; Langleben, Daniel D; Lowen, Steven BBackground—Warning labels on cigarette packages are an important venue for information about the hazards of smoking. The 2009 US Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act mandated replacing the current text-only labels with graphic warning labels. However, labels proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were challenged in court by the tobacco companies, who argued successfully that the proposed labels needlessly encroached on their right to free speech, in part because they included images of high emotional salience that indiscriminately frightened rather than informed consumers. Methods—We used functional MRI to examine the effects of graphic warning labels' emotional salience on smokers' brain activity and cognition. Twenty-four smokers viewed a random sequence of blocks of graphic warning labels that have been rated high or low on an ‘emotional reaction’ scale in previous research. Results—We found that labels rated high on emotional reaction were better remembered, associated with reduction in the urge to smoke, and produced greater brain response in the amygdala, hippocampi, inferior frontal gyri and the insulae. Conclusions—Recognition memory and craving are, respectively, correlates of effectiveness of addiction related public health communications and interventions, and amygdala activation facilitates the encoding of emotional memories. Thus, our results suggest that emotional reaction to graphic warning labels contributes to their public health impact and may be an integral part of the neural mechanisms underlying their effectiveness. Given the urgency of the debate about the constitutional risks and public health benefits of graphic warning labels, these preliminary findings warrant consideration while longitudinal clinical studies are underway