Brain activity and lying
This, from Michael Kesterton's column "Social Studies" in the G&M today - another tit-bit towards our Reetion biopsych probe (although it's nothing like an MRI. Your description of a visitor probe is more MRI like - minus the magnetic fields.)
Lying observed: U.S. scientists say they have spotted a telltale pattern of brain activity that can reveal when someone is lying, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. In their study, researchers used functional magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) to look inside the heads of 18 test subjects who had been asked to cheat during a standard laboratory card game. They discovered that lying is hard work. "When you tell a deliberate lie, you have to be holding in mind the truth," says Daniel Langleben, a University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist who led the study. "So it stands to reason [lying] should mean more brain activity." He found that lying is marked by increased nerve firing, particularly in a brain region called the "anterior cingulate gyrus," long associated with conflict resolution and response inhibition. The evidence suggests that being truthful is the brain's "default" mode -- not for morality's sake, but because it is less taxing on brain cells.

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