Do We Have Free Will?

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A subject is asked to press a button at a time of his/her own violition. Electrodes detect the brain's activity.
Result: There is a clear indication of electrical activity about a full second ahead of the time that the subject believes that the actual decision was made.
If free will exists, then it must involve some sort of a time delay of about one second.
Or is free will an illusion, the result of the interpreter's storytelling?

Source: H. H. Kornhuber, "Cerebral Cortex, Cerebellum, and Basal Ganglia: An Introduction to Their Motor Functions," in The Neurosciences, Third Study Program, eds. F. O. Schmitt and F. G. Worden (Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1973), pp. 267-80. Diagram from Penrose, Roger, The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind.

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Last modified: Friday, March 26, 2004 11:10 AM

Do We Have Free Will?

A subject is asked to press a button at a time of his/her own violition. Electrodes detect the brain's activity.

Result: There is a clear indication of electrical activity about a full second ahead of the time that the subject believes that the actual decision was made.

If free will exists, then it must involve some sort of a time delay of about one second.

Or is free will an illusion, the result of the interpreter's storytelling?