Brain regions (shown in green) from which the outcome of a participant’s decision can be predicted before it is made. (Illustration from original press release)

From the Max Planck Institute press release:

Already several seconds before we consciously make a decision its outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in the brain. This is shown in a study by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, in collaboration with the Charité University Hospital and the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin. The researchers from the group of Professor John-Dylan Haynes used a brain scanner to investigate what happens in the human brain just before a decision is made. “Many processes in the brain occur automatically and without involvement of our consciousness. This prevents our mind from being overloaded by simple routine tasks. But when it comes to decisions we tend to assume they are made by our conscious mind. This is questioned by our current findings.” (Nature Neuroscience, April 13th 2008)

Did I read that correctly? My brain is making a decision a full 7 seconds before I’m aware of the decision? Wait a minute!! What about choice and accountability? That is, how can the universe (”God”) hold me accountable for a choice when I didn’t consciously make it? What the hey!!!??!!!

The researchers also note that the study does not finally rule out free will (I’m relieved, sort of): “Our study shows that decisions are unconsciously prepared much longer ahead than previously thought. But we do not know yet where the final decision is made. We need to investigate whether a decision prepared by these brain areas can still be reversed.”

Ah, I feel so much better knowing I have some conscious control over my choices – even if just to put my conscious stamp of approval or disapproval on a specific choice (maybe!). But, hold on cowboy – twenty years ago, UC San Francisco brain scientist Benjamin Libet found a brain signal, the so-called “readiness-potential” that occurred a fraction of a second before a conscious decision. In Libet’s view, it is the brain that makes the decision, not a person’s conscious mind. Oh, no!! Back to unconscious choices!

I’ve known for years that I do most activities automatically – and all too often speak or act before I “think” (my wife will attest to this). I just didn’t appreciate the extent of my choice automation. According to the Planck study, virtually ALL my choices are considered, mulled over, and decided long before I’m aware of it. And I’m basically living out my unconscious choices – and in most cases, justifying them in order to make myself appear to be right, justified, or at least proper.

It gives new meaning to Bill Cosby’s teenage conundrum – when asked, “Why did you do that?” Bill’s teenage child would answer, “I don’t know!” Perhaps now we know – he wasn’t lying! He didn’t consciously know. But some part of him did… seven seconds before. He just wasn’t aware of it.

It would seem that free will is an illusion. And yet nature is accountable to provide us a result of our “choice” – regardless of whether or not we are aware we’ve made a choice. Egad! I may be suffering from the result of choices I didn’t consciously participate in until after the fact. Perhaps it would be a reasonable idea to get better acquainted with my subconscious mind, eh?

How can we take charge of our lives if free will is an illusion? How can I realistically say I want to do this or that when the decision is already made 7 seconds ago? It’s a conundrum fit for the likes of Plato or Socrates.

So, I wonder -

• What does it mean that your brain knows your choices 7 seconds before you do?
• Is free will, therefore, an illusion?
• Are we just acting out subconscious choices over which we have little or no conscious control?
• How can you be held accountable (by the universe, God, the law) for decisions you didn’t consciously make? Or did you?
• Who is making your choices? Who is represented by that 7-second-in-advance brain area?
• Is this evidence to support the concept of a “super-consciousness” – like a “spirit” or “esoteric essence” or the like?

What do you think of all this? Please post a comment so we can discuss it…

Original Study:
Chun Siong Soon, Marcel Brass, Hans-Jochen Heinze & John-Dylan Haynes
Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nature Neuroscience April 13th, 2008. Click here to see original press release.