Free Won’t

A new study regarding free will makes it appear the gap between when we choose to do something, and when we think we choose to do it, is even larger than we knew

7 Seconds Till Action

A new study has been published that explores in a new way, with even greater accuracy, the gap in time between when our brains ‘light up’ to perform an action, and when we actually perform the action, and believe we ‘choose’ to do it.

Previous to this, Benjamin Libet in 1983 conducted experiments that indicated that there is a gap of about half a second between when the ‘supplementary motor area’ of our brains (which is involved in planning physical movements) lights up, and when we first feel the urge to move. But this experiment relied upon people noting the times on a stopwatch and later writing them down; and the difference in time was so short that it was argued, by the many fierce advocates of ‘free will,’ that the experiment could have been in error.

Now a new study has been conducted. John-Dylan Haynes is a neuroscientist at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin, and the leader of this study, which has been published in Nature Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1038/nn.2112). They looked at when the prefrontal cortex (which is involved in thought and consciousness) lights up, before a person chose to press a button. And they found it ‘lit up’ a full seven seconds before the person pressed the button. They also found that the supplementary motor area lit up five seconds before the person pressed the button. And finally, when they looked at the pattern in which the relevant neurons ‘fired,’ they found they could predict which button would be pressed, with an accuracy of 60%, or somewhat better than random.

Backlash

Of course the ‘free will diehards’ pushed back against the new study, and again chose to deny it had anything to do with their precious choice. But it seems clear that something else is going on, and it behooves the wise and prudent man to ask what that something is, and look into the matter further.

There is more to tell in this story, but we need better and finer instruments that will let us peer into the brain as it’s working before we can get much farther. Indeed, one of the complaints about this latest study is that the subjects had to be inside fMRI chambers for their brain activity to be seen; ‘maybe being inside the fMRI chamber changes the way their brains work,’ protests one critic, rather foolishly. And yet that is a concern.

A Possible Model

Here’s how I take this news, tentatively, with full realisation of all the work that still needs to be done, and all the discoveries yet to come.

At the first impulse, there is a suggestion put forth, somewhere in the brain (maybe in the prefrontal cortex, maybe somewhere else that then feeds into the prefrontal cortex). This suggested action feeds into the prefrontal cortex (or builds up therein) gaining force, or let us say, ‘pressure’ to use a hydraulic metaphor. When this ‘pressure’ has gained enough force, the ‘decision’ is made to go ahead with it (preliminarily) and this is then passed on to the supplementary motor area, where the final ‘plans’ are put in place as to which muscles need to be pulled, in what order, under what force, and so on. Finally, this pattern is fired off and sent to the muscles, where the action is performed.

Now I propose that what is happening is a rising ‘pressure’ to act. The original impetus is beyond me to guess at, and probably varies, but it must have something to do with the environment — in other words, something out there acts as a ‘trigger’ that sets this whole thing in motion. (On the other hand it’s possible that there are interior ‘triggers’ that remain ‘exterior’ to the prefrontal cortex, or whatever it is that we can say is ‘us’ and a direct and needful part of the ‘decision-making process.’ For example, in this latest study, the people were in the fMRI chamber, with the buttons before them, and they were told they could choose to press a button, any button, at any time. Well, this does raise in these people the expectation that they ought to press one of the buttons sometime while they are in there, just to please the experimenters and be good little subjects. So maybe as the moments passed, there was a rising sense of time lapsing during which no button had been pressed. In this case the sense of time is interior to the person who will then ‘choose’ to press one of the buttons.)

As this ‘pressure’ rises, we become aware of it. This is what is crucial to the question of free will as I now see it. Somewhere along the way, we become aware of this ‘choice to act’ although it has been made outside of our conscious awareness; at the point when it does enter our conscious awareness, we can then prevent the action — if we are aware before our muscles carry it out.

Ed Yong coined a clever phrase for this saying-no: free won’t.

Sometimes we act on ‘autopilot’ and are not even aware of what we ‘choose’ to do until after we have done it. Sometimes we are not even aware at all.

I believe we can increase our awareness of what goes on inside us. We can be more aware, earlier, and aware of more subtle patterns and activities. We can also ‘slow down’ our activities, even within the mind or brain, so that we can gain time before we act, to be aware of what our ‘other self’ has chosen, or proposed, to do.

Free Will — in Advance

The greater our self-awareness, the earlier we will be aware of the rising ‘pressure’ to act, and the earlier we can say ‘yes, go ahead’ or ‘no I don’t propose to do that.’

‘Deciding in advance’ has another possible benefit: it might make choosing easier. It seems (evidence is there, but still, as all our knowledge of the brain, tentative) that using ‘will-power’ to overcome the natural tendencies we have (or in other words, the ‘pressures’ that build up ‘of themselves’) to act in certain ways, burns glucose in the brain, and as the glucose supplies dwindle, we have less and less ‘will-power’ and consequently, less and less strength to say ‘no’ — and hence our ‘free won’t’ is diminished.

Working at it

One way to increase self-awareness is to cultivate the practice of being aware. Look at yourself at all times, watch what you do. Try to sense the process that leads to your actions. Grow an awareness of what it feels like. Try to sense the earliest moment when you decide to do something.

I can say from my own experience that I feel ‘impulses to act’ that precede any conscious ‘choice’ to act. These come to me in the form of patterns of action, quite like memories of action. The patterns are like models or templates of sitting down, standing, opening a cabinet to take out a toothbrush, accelerating an automobile from a stop, and so on. I imagine myself doing the series of actions, a moment or so before I do them. This is not conscious in the sense that I think to myself, ‘what would it be like to get up?’ or ‘how will I get up now?’ — instead it just appears ‘out of nowhere’ (that is, beneath and before where I can sense consciously).

Meditation, I think, has increased my sensitivity in this regard quite a bit; but also simply by being aware of this model, I tend to ‘see’ it whenever I look at myself and my actions at the subtlest level. Whenever I look instead at the results I want I lose all sense of this interior process. There are times when we want and need to be looking ‘outward’ more than ‘inward.’

(Composed on keyboard Tuesday, April 15, 2008)