18 papers · ranked by Valyu relevance
Azadeh Hassannejad Nazir, Tomas Watanabe, Mikael Lundqvist, Nima Khalighinejad + 2 more
Volitional action arises from the interaction between internal intentions and external stimuli, yet the neural dynamics distinguishing self-initiated from externally triggered actions remain unclear. Here, we combine human EEG/ERP data with simulations from a phenomenological neurocomputational model of prefrontal…
Azadeh Hassannejad Nazir, Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski, Hans Liljenström
'Hans Liljenström'] Volition is conceived as a set of orchestrated executive functions, which can be characterized by features, such as reason-based and goal-directedness, driven by endogenous signals. The lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) has long been considered to be responsible for cognitive control and executive…
Adrian G. Guggisberg, Anaïs Mottaz
Since Libet's seminal observation that a brain potential related to movement preparation occurs before participants report to be aware of their movement intention, it has been debated whether consciousness has causal influence on movement decisions. Here we review recent advances that provide new insights into the…
Jiaxiang Zhang, Laura E. Hughes, James B. Rowe
One can choose between action alternatives that have no apparent difference in their outcomes. Such voluntary action decisions are associated with widespread frontal-parietal activation, and a tendency to inhibit the repetition of a previous action. However, the mechanism of initiating voluntary actions and the…
Ehud Shapiro
The most prevalent distributed systems today include people and their personal machines (smartphones). In such systems, computations are driven by people's volitions: a payment when a person wishes to pay someone, befriending when two people wish to become friends, etc. Volition-Guarded Multiagent Atomic Transactions…
U. Maoz, G. Yaffe, C. Koch, L. Mudrik
The readiness potential (RP)—a key ERP correlate of upcoming action—is known to precede subjects’ reports of their decision to move. Some view this as evidence against a causal role for consciousness in human decision-making and thus against free-will. Yet those studies focused on arbitrary decisions—purposeless…
Ruoguang Si, James B Rowe, Jiaxiang Zhang
Brain-imaging research on intentional decision-making often employs a “free-choice” paradigm, in which participants choose among options with identical values or outcomes. Although the medial prefrontal cortex has commonly been associated with choices, there is no consensus on the wider network that underlies diverse…
Gregory B. Bonn
This paper examines the concept of free will, or independent action, in light of recent research in psychology and neuroscience. Reviewing findings in memory, prospection, and mental simulation, as well as the neurological mechanisms underlying behavioral control, planning, and integration, it is suggested in accord…
C. Mitelut, Y Zhang, Y Sekino, J Boyd + 5 more
Volition - the sense of control or agency over one’s voluntary actions - is widely recognized as the basis of both human subjective experience and natural behavior in non-human animals. To date, several human studies have found peaks in neural activity preceding voluntary actions, e.g. the readiness potential (RP), and…
Chetan S. Mandayam Nayakar, S. Omkar, R. Srikanth
The basic question in the long-standing debate about free will (FW) is not whether FW can be demonstrated to exist nor even whether it exists, but instead how to define it scientifically. If FW is not dismissed as an illusion nor identified with a variety of unpredictability, then logical paradoxes arise that make FW…
Andy Lewis-Pye, Ehud Shapiro
Formal models for concurrent and distributed systems describe machines; the people who operate them are either ignored or treated as external environment. Yet key distributed systems -- notably grassroots platforms -- include people operating their personal machines (smartphones), and their faithful description must…
Stephan Lau, Anette Hiemisch
The freedom of a decision is not yet sufficiently described as a psychological variable. We present a model of functional decision freedom that aims to fill that role. The model conceptualizes functional freedom as a capacity of people that varies depending on certain conditions of a decision episode. It denotes an…
Jessica Dai
Anthropomorphic Ethical Analysis Authors: ['Jessica Dai'] What is agency, and why does it matter? In this work, we draw from the political science and philosophy literature and give two competing visions of what it means to be an (ethical) agent. The first view, which we term mechanistic, is commonly—and…
Carmen F. Fisac, Steven M. Chase
Voluntary movement is driven by the primary motor cortex (M1), and individuals can learn to modulate even single neurons at will. Yet M1 also receives pronounced sensory inputs and contributes to sensory-driven motor responses. To what extent do these non-volitional signals restrict voluntary modulation of M1? Using a…
Eric Sanchis
Free will is sometimes summarised in the philosophical literature as the subjective impression felt by an individual that he or she is the ultimate source or cause of his or her own choices. The two most common arguments for denying the existence of free will come from philosophy and neuroscience. The first argument is…
Seth Lloyd
Before Alan Turing made his crucial contributions to the theory of computation, he studied the question of whether quantum mechanics could throw light on the nature of free will. This article investigates the roles of quantum mechanics and computation in free will. Although quantum mechanics implies that events are…
Camilla Kao, Che-I Kao
Recently we proposed that mission statements incorporating the concept of reducing uncertainty could provide a framework for learning the bread and depth of information that exists about health and safety. We briefly explained the definition of uncertainty in the context of health and safety, with the unifying…
J.A. Bergstra
Decision taking is discussed in the context of the role it may play for various types of agents, and it is contrasted with action determination. Some remarks are made about the role of decision taking and action determination in the ongoing debate concerning the reverse polder development of the hertogin Hedwige…