Why can't our testing be faked?

EEGs provide particularly good indices of neural abnormality due to their objective nature and inability to 'fake' (Gaetz & Bernstein, 2001; Tardif et al., 2002).

Early ERP components (< 300 ms) are an excellent measure of neural abnormalities, as these reflect early and automated attentional processes that are affected by brain pathology (Mangun & Hillyard, 1995; Niedermeyer & Lopes da Silva, 1999; Reinvang et al., 2000; Rowe, 2006).

In particular, these early automated processes precede the subject's conscious awareness of the need to respond (Gomes, 1998; Keller & Heckhausen, 1990; Libet et al., 1983; 1993; 2002; Pollen, 2004; Szelag et al., 2001), and therefore cannot be faked.

References

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Gomes, G (1998). The Timing of Conscious Experience: A Critical Review and Reinterpretation of Libet's Research. Consciousness and Cognition , 7 , 559-595.

Keller, I and Heckhausen, H (1990). Readiness potentials preceding spontaneous motor acts: voluntary vs. involuntary control. Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology , 76 , 351-361.

Libet, B (1993). The neural time factor in conscious and unconscious events. Ciba Foundation Symposium , 174 , 123-146.

Libet, B, Gleason, CA, Wright, EW, and Pearl, DK (1983). Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential). The unconscious initiation of a freely voluntary act. Brain , 106 , 623-642.

Libet, B (2002). The Timing of Mental Events: Libet's Experimental Findings and Their Implications. Consciousness and Cognition , 11 , 291-299.

Mangun, GR and Hillyard, SA (1995). Mechanisms and models of selective attention. Oxford psychology series , 25 , 40-85.

Niedermeyer, E and Lopes da Silva, FH (1999). Electroencephalography: basic principles, clinical applications and related fields. 4th. Williams & Watkins, Baltimore.

Pollen, DA (2004). Brain stimulation and conscious experience. Consciousness and Cognition , 13 , 626-645.

Reinvang, I, Nordby, H, and Nielsen, CS (2000). Information processing deficits in head injury assessed with ERPs reflecting early and late processing stages. Neuropsychologia , 38 , 995-1005.

Rowe, DL (2005). A framework for investigating thalamocortical activity in multistage information processing. Journal of Integrative Neuroscience , 4 , 5-26.

Szelag, E, Rymarczyk, K, and Poppel, E (2001). Conscious control of movements: increase of temporal precision in voluntarily delayed actions. Acta Neurobiol Exp , 61 , 175-179.