Why neuroscience reveals that we have control over and are responsible for our own actions.

 

Above, a mind diligently watches over and controls the behavior of the brain.
Ilustration courtesy of artist George Koch. Visit his website at

 

Article by Chris Lind. © 2008.

 

 

In 1982, the neuroscientist Benjamin Libet devised and performed an experiment to determine when a person becomes aware of the conscious desire to act in relation to an electrical signal called the readiness potential. The readiness potential is produced by the motor cortex of the brain prior to voluntary muscle movement.

 

What Libet found is that conscious awareness of the intent to act occurs some 350 milliseconds AFTER the appearance of the readiness potential. At first glance, this finding suggests that free will is an illusion. The study clearly demonstrates that brain activity leading to muscle movement begins before a person ever becomes conscious of their “decision” to move.

 

Yet, Libet himself did not think his findings ruled out the possibility of free will. Libet’s experiments, which have been replicated by other researchers, show that the readiness potential occurs some 550 milliseconds before muscle movement occurs and that awareness of the “decision” / “intent” to move occurs some 100 to 200 milliseconds before muscle movement occurs.

 

According to Libet, the 100 to 200 milliseconds between conscious awareness of the will to act and the muscle movement itself “allows enough time in which the conscious function might effect the final outcome of the volitional process.”[1]

 

This is a form of free will know as “free won’t”.[2] As Charles Sherrington put it, “to refrain from an act is no less an act than to commit one”. Your mind has “veto power” over your body. Experiments performed in 1983 clearly showed that subjects could choose not to perform a movement that was at the cusp of occurring (that is, that their brain was preparing to make) and that was preceded by a large readiness potential.²  

 

The moral of Libet’s findings is that free will is real. We truly do have control over and are responsible for our own actions. You don’t have to act the way you feel.

 

In Later years, Libet summarized his research as follows, “Our experimental work in voluntary action led to inferences about responsibility and free will. Since the volitional process is initiated in the brain unconsciously, one cannot be held to feel guilty or sinful for simply having an urge or wish to do something asocial. But conscious control over the possible act is available, making people responsible for their actions. The unconscious initiation of a voluntary act provides direct evidence for the brain’s role in unconscious mental processes. I, as an experimental scientist, am led to suggest that true free will is a [more accurate scientific description] than determinism.”[3]

 

 

Article by Chris Lind. © 2008.

This article cannot be reproduced in any form without express permission from the author.

---