Kosheleva Elena, Spadoni Andrea D, Strigo Irina A, Buchsbaum Monte S, Simmons Alan N
Center of Excellence in Stress and Mental Health, San Diego Veterans Affairs Health Care System.
San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Neuropsychology. 2016 Mar;30(3):377-84. doi: 10.1037/neu0000251. Epub 2016 Jan 14.
The detection of malingering in cognitive performance is a challenge in clinical and legal environments. Neuroimaging may provide an objective method for delineation of malingering.
A heterogeneous with concern of gender and racial-ethnic identity of 22 healthy volunteers completed the Tombaugh Test of Memory Malingering during an fMRI scan. Subjects were either instructed to perform optimally (not feigning) or to perform "as if they had a mild traumatic brain injury with memory impairment" (feigning).
A voxel-based multiple regression analysis revealed that during correct responses there was greater activation in the superior and medial prefrontal cortex during the feigning versus the not-feigning responses.
This finding suggests that falsified memory performance requires greater activation of cognitive control networks to determine a correct selection.
