Work by physiology professor Benjamin Libet at the University of California at Davis shows that neural activity to initiate an action actually occurs about a third of a second before the brain has made the decision to take the action. The implication, according to Libet, is that the decision is really an illusion, that “consciousness is out of the loop.” The cognitive scientist and philosopher Daniel Dennett describes the phenomenon as follows: “The action is originally precipitated in some part of the brain, and off fly the signals to muscles, pausing en route to tell you, the conscious
...more
