Libet's Research on the Timing of Conscious Intention to Act: A Commentary

S. Pockett (Consciousness and Cognition, this issue) and G. Gomes (Consciousness and Cognition, this issue) discuss a possible bias in the method by which Libet's subjects estimated the time at which they became aware of their intent to move their hands. The bias, caused by sensory delay processing the clock information, would be sufficient to alter Trevena and Miller's (Consciousness and Cognition, this issue) conclusions regarding the timing of the lateralized readiness potential. I show that the flash-lag effect would compensate for that bias. In the last part of my commentary I note that the other target articles do not examine the most interesting aspect of Libet's unfashionable views on free will. I point out that Libet's views are less strange than they at first appear to be.

[1]  Stanley A. Klein,et al.  Is Quantum Mechanics Relevant To Understanding Consciousness? A Review of Shadows of the Mind by Roger Penrose , 1995 .

[2]  Jeff Miller,et al.  Cortical Movement Preparation before and after a Conscious Decision to Move , 2002, Consciousness and Cognition.

[3]  Gilberto Gomes,et al.  Problems in the Timing of Conscious Experience , 2002, Consciousness and Cognition.

[4]  H. Stapp.  Quantum Theory and the Role of Mind in Nature , 2001 .

[5]  Michael Jenkin,et al.  Spatial vision in humans and robots , 1994 .

[6]  S. Pockett.  On Subjective Back-Referral and How Long It Takes to Become Conscious of a Stimulus: A Reinterpretation of Libet's Data , 2002, Consciousness and Cognition.

[7]  Romi Nijhawan,et al.  Motion extrapolation in catching , 1994, Nature.

[8]  G. Claxton.  The Volitional Brain , 1999 .

[9]  C. Spence,et al.  Multisensory prior entry. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[10]  Henry P. Stapp,et al.  Attention, Intention, and Will in Quantum Physics , 1999, quant-ph/9905054.

[11]  S. Klein,et al.  Evidence for an Attentional Component of the Perceptual Misalignment between Moving and Flashing Stimuli , 2002, Perception.

[12]  A powerful paradigm made stronger , 1998, Neuropsychologia.

[13]  Gilberto Gomes,et al.  Volition and the readiness potential , 1999 .

[14]  B. Libet.  Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action , 1985, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[15]  Gilberto Gomes,et al.  The Timing of Conscious Experience: A Critical Review and Reinterpretation of Libet's Research , 1998, Consciousness and Cognition.

[16]  S. Schulman.  The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul , 1994 .

[17]  C. Wood.  Pardon, your dualism is showing , 1985, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[18]  Shinsuke Shimojo,et al.  Changing objects lead briefly flashed ones , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[19]  Stanley A. Klein,et al.  Extrapolation or attention shift? , 1995, Nature.

[20]  J. Searle.  Free Will as a Problem in Neurobiology , 2001, Philosophy.

[21]  B. Libet,et al.  Readiness-potentials preceding unrestricted 'spontaneous' vs. pre-planned voluntary acts. , 1982, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[22]  B. Libet,et al.  Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential). The unconscious initiation of a freely voluntary act. , 1983, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[23]  Stanley A. Klein.  Will robots see , 1994 .

[24]  Henry P. Stapp,et al.  Mind, matter, and quantum mechanics , 1982 .

[25]  B. Libet,et al.  Conscious intention and brain activity. , 2001 .

[26]  G. Gomes.  The Interpretation of Libet's Results on the Timing of Conscious Events: A Commentary , 2002, Consciousness and Cognition.