Benjamin Libet
The brain prepares the action before we are aware of deciding it.
Life
American neurophysiologist (Chicago 1916 - Davis 2007), professor at the University of California, San Francisco. His experiments in the 1980s compare the moment the brain prepares a voluntary movement with the moment the subject reports deciding. They fed the debate on free will. Libet thought conscious will keeps a power of veto.
Main works
Measures the gap between the brain's readiness potential and awareness of wanting to act.
Concludes the brain initiates the act before awareness, which can still block it.
A summary of his research on the timing of consciousness.
In his own words
« It was concluded that cerebral initiation of a spontaneous voluntary act begins unconsciously. However, it was found that the final decision to act could still be consciously controlled during the 150 ms or so remaining after the specific conscious intention appears. »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceHe proposes a conscious mental field that is not reducible to neural activity, a view between materialism and dualism.
Libet, Mind Time (2004)
His experiments show the brain starts a movement before we feel the decision, but we keep a conscious power to veto it, so free will is left room.
Libet, Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action (1985) ; Mind Time (2004)