Brain Study Calls Free Will Into Question

siddster notes an account up at Wired of research indicating that brain scanners can see your decisions before you make them. "In a study published Sunday in Nature Neuroscience, researchers using brain scanners could predict people's decisions seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them... Caveats remain, holding open the door for free will... The experiment may not reflect the mental dynamics of other, more complicated decisions... Also, the predictions were not completely accurate. Maybe free will enters at the last moment, allowing a person to override an unpalatable subconscious decision."

Comments

7 seconds

[iamhigh]

In a study published Sunday in Nature Neuroscience, researchers using brain scanners could predict people's decisions seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them ... a bunch of stuff about brain activity...

Taken together, the patterns consistently predicted whether test subjects eventually pushed a button with their left or right hand Who the hell takes 7 seconds to decide left or right? I hope they all took the bus... or maybe the shortbus?

Re:7 seconds

[The MAZZTer]

If you had read your first quote more carefully the second one would have made more sense. What it's saying is the scanner picked up on unconscious decisions people made. In this case the decision was trivial with no (known) consequences either way so the subjects likely didn't hesitate and just picked one consciously. What this is saying is that they had actually subconsciously decided which one they were going to pick seconds in advance and the scanner was able to see that.

Re:7 seconds

[kae_verens]

yeah, and I bet that at about minute 40, someone in a gorilla suit walked straight in front of the MRI machine and you didn't even see it.

seriously, though - I think you've answered yourself. If you are studying the subconscious mind, then you need to somehow get the conscious mind out of the way - the best way being to bore the mind into reacting instead of thinking.

I have free will

[Lucas123]

I've chosen not to comment on this story. There's my free will. Wait, I mean, I'll comment but I'm not leaving an opinion, except for the one that states that I have free will. Hold on. OK. I'm not leaving an opinion as much as statement. Oh, forget it. You're right. I have no free will.

Re:I have free will

[MightyYar]

Forget it - that line of reasoning didn't work for me in front of the judge after the whole girl scout thing, either.

Will or Wii?

[blantonl]

For a second or two there... I thought for sure the study called my Wii into question.

My "will" is rock solid... my "Wii" challenges me evey day.

Re:Will or Wii?

[Mastadex]

Thats alright, I thought it was calling into question a movie that was made some 15 years ago.

But what if you choose not to decide?

[sticks_us]

You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill
I will choose a path thats clear
I will choose free will!

--oblig.

+5 Predetermined

[Shaitan Apistos]

If you don't mod me according to my post's title I'll understand, you didn't have a choice.

Re:Predict the prediction.

[Simon Simian]

I was going to call you, but then I didn't.

Re:Predict the prediction.

[infonography]

I was going to call you, but then I didn't. I knew you were going to say that.

Re:Predict the prediction.

[Simon Simian]

Shingle Donkeys

Criminal Court :)

[davidwr]

High Priced Trial Lawyer: Your honor, my client pleads not guilty by reason of no free will.

Judge: I sentence him to life in prison.

High Priced Trial Lawyer: But...

Judge: Don't look at me, I don't have free will either.

Re:Um, not so much of a newsflash

[93 Escort Wagon]

During the early 1600s there was an argument amongst various protestant faiths about whether there was free will or not, particularly in England. Whether free will exists, or not - why would that fact differ in England as compared to the rest of the world?

Sincerely,
Mr. Pedantic

Re:Um, not so much of a newsflash

[NIckGorton]

The only chance we have of any free will at all is in quantum weirdness which is not much free will to speak of, and certainly not enough to be palatable to the average American who thinks his success or failure is a product of his own decisions rather than the sum total of a very complicated system that he has little control over and basically just experiences as the phenomena of his mind. I knew you were gonna say that. And I knew you were going to say that.

Re:Predict the prediction.

[infonography]

Shingle Donkeys ok, thats as far as I am going to go with you.

Re:Predict the prediction.

[Anonymous Coward]

when closing the car door you see your keys in the ignition, your brain says STOP but your hand continues to close the door. ignisecond, n:
The overlapping moment of time when the hand is locking the car door even as the brain is saying, "my keys are in there!"
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"

Re:Predict the prediction.

[Elad Alon]

"We wanted to include a chapter on free will, but then decided not to - so here it is."

Re:Predict the prediction.

[Kerstyun]

there are 50000 year old cave drawings in France

That's 44 thousand year's older then the earth you dumbass.

Re:Predict the prediction.

[pbhj]

it's definitely in the Bible Code!