In our everyday lives, we are constantly making decisions. Whether that decision is small or life-changing, our lives are filled with daily decisions. When we are making these decisions, we never fully think about where the basis of these decisions come from. Decision making traces back to our brain. Just like the mitochondria is the powerhouse of a cell, the brain is the powerhouse behind the decisions, choices, and actions we make as humans.
Lets start with first defining how these decisions are made. In the article, Can Neuroscience Debunk Free Will?, neuroscience research has showed how our decisions are put into action when our thought process behind it has already occurred. A person first consciously thinks about something that he/she wants to do. In a short amount of seconds later, the person performs the action. This is a natural process. Think back to the last time you were hungry. In your brain, you consciously said to yourself that your stomach is empty and has the feeling of hunger, so you should get something to eat. Seconds later, you are on your feet on your way to a food source. The decision is made before you know that you'll be doing it. Essentially this is the process from the point of decision making to the point of action.
Moving into the idea of free will, there are constant debates among philosophers and neuroscientists if the idea of free will truly exists or is it simply an illusion. Free will and decision making are interconnected. If one were to have free will, then they would be able to consciously control their decisions and actions. However, if one were to think they had free will, then your conscious control is just an illusion. The illusion viewpoint of free will has been labeled as a subjective experience according to the article, Can Neuroscience Debunk Free Will?. There is a strong argument that challenges the idea of subjective experience, neuroprediction. Neuroprediction is being able to track brain activity that can predict decisions. There is not one right way to believe in free will. It is merely up to the person and what their personal beliefs are.
In Can Neuroscience Debunk Free Will?, a study was done at Georgia State University in Atlanta to test neuroprediction. Undergraduate students were told a made up study of a high-tech cap technology and a story about a woman. The high-tech cap was able to predict decisions before people made them by looking only at brain activity. Furthermore, the students were told that a woman named Jill wore the cap for a month and during that month neuroscientists were able to predict her decisions before she made them. Roughly 80% of the students believed that the technology itself was plausible, but it did not impair the idea of free will. On the other hand, had the technology manipulated the decisions then it would have impaired free will according to the students. This study goes to show that free will is not necessarily used rather that brain activity can anticipate decisions. The implications behind free will are greatly significant and will only further increases as more research is done. Neuroprediction is on its way to defy free will shed some light to some of the missing holes in this phenomenon.
A neuroscience seminar talk at Loyola University Chicago was given by Joe Vukov. During his talk he referenced an article by Soon et al (2008), Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. The article describes that the brain already makes the decision 10 seconds before the action has already been performed. This only further emphasizes the point that in decision making the brain consciously makes a decision before it puts it into action. Soon et al. takes the stance that free will does not exist because our brain makes a decision before we are even aware of it. In addition, Vukov also mentioned another experiment that was done in 1983 by Libet et al. An EEG study was done to measure reading potentials in wrist flexion. The researchers were looking at the awareness of the urge to flex. The overall conclusion from this experiment was that one makes a decision, then is aware of the decision, and finally the decision is performed. Both of the experiments mentioned in Vukov's talk relates back to the definition of decision making in Can Neuroscience Debunk Free Will?. This article helps to further emphasize the findings in the articles referenced by Vukov. Later in the talk, Vukov digs into 5 reasons why neuroscience hasn't disproved free will. However, the idea behind neuroprediction can be a great counterargument to those reasons.
The idea of free will has not been ruled out completely from the world. However, as time as goes on more and more research will be able to further challenge this phenomenon. Neuroprediction is just one way that could potentially end free will.
Works Cited
“Can Neuroscience Debunk Free Will?” Time, Time, 21 Oct. 2014, time.com/3529770/neuroscience-free-will/.
“Unconscious Determinants of Free Decisions in the Human Brain.”NatureNeuroScience_Soon_et_al.Pdf | Powered By Box, 2008, luc.app.box.com/v/neuroseminar/file/216116077901.
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