Task 9- Consciousness

Question 1

What is a readiness potential (RP)?

Answer 1

slow negative shift in electrical potential generated by the brain (SMA), beginning up to a second before a self-paced, apparently voluntary motor act

Question 2

What is RP 1? And when does that occur?

Answer 2

• only in trials where subjects reported planning/preparation to act
• Ramp-like RP with an average onset at about 1050ms before motor act

Question 3

What is RP 2? When does that occur?

Answer 3

• the one uniquely associated with an exclusively endogenous volitional process/ spontaneuos
• Average onset at about 550ms before motor act

Question 4

How is voluntary action and will characterized?

Answer 4

1. Arises endogenously
2. No externally imposed restrictions/compulsions that controls one’s initiation and performance of the act
3. One feels introspectively that they are performing the act voluntarily and that they are free to (not) start the act as they wish

Question 5

What were the instructions in Libet’s study?

Answer 5

-Perform a prescribed motor act (flexing finger) at some time (free to choose) after the start of each trial
-Pay close introspective attention to the onset of the urge to perform the act
 *W – experience of the first awareness of wanting to move
 *Indication of the timing: there was a light spot going around a clock face and participants later had to say on what number it was when the urge occurred
-Should not plan the act, should be “spontaneous”

Question 6

How did Libet check for the validity of W(=experience of first awareness to move)?
–> Second Experiment with S

Answer 6

• skin stimulus was delivered at an irregular, randomized time after the start of each trial -> subject reported the time of his awareness of the stimulus
• discrepancy between the subject’s reported timing and the actual stimulus time could be objectively determined
• S were usually reported to occur a little in advance of the actual delivery time
• -> W-S: -150 MS (so W 50 MS later than first thought)

Question 7

Which kinds of measurements were compared to each other in Libet’s study?

Answer 7

• compare time of onset of the conscious intention to act (W) and the time of onset of associated cerebral processes (RP)
• compare W and the actual time of the voluntary motor act (indicated EMG)

Question 8

What were the results of Libet’s study?

-When took W and RP place physiologically?

Answer 8

-“physical” (= cerebral process, RP) precedes the “mental” (= conscious intention, W)
 *W = on average 200ms before muscle activation
-RP 1= 1050 before motor act
-RP 2= 550 ms before motor act -> consistently in advance of W
-PMP (premotor potential): 50 MS before
-Reported times for W were the same for RP 1 and 2

Question 9

What are the conclusions drawn from Libet’s study?

-What are voluntary acts initiated by?

Answer 9

• Voluntary acts can be initiated by unconscious cerebral processes BEFORE conscious intention appears
  
  • -> Brain decides to initiate or at least prepare the act before there is any reportable subjective awareness of the decision

Question 10

What are the conclusions drawn from Libet’s study concerning conscious control?

Answer 10

• conscious control over the actual motor performance of the acts remains possible
• Conscious volitional control may operate not to initiate the volitional process, but to select and control it
  
  • -> Either by triggering the final motor outcome or by vetoing the progression to actual motor activation

Question 11

What is free will according to Libet’s study?

Answer 11

Free will is restricted/ different to what we would think -> selects voluntary outcomes rather than initiate them

Question 12

Conscious volitional control in Libet’s study

• When is MP generated?
• Could conscious control block the onset of MP?

Answer 12

• Motor potential (MP) is generated at about 50ms before muscle EMG
• So there remains a period of about 100-200ms (btw W and MP) in which conscious control could block the onset of the MP

Question 13

How did Libet find evidence for veto?

Answer 13

• Subjects reported that during some of the trials a recallable conscious urge to act appeared but was suppressed before the actual movement occurred
• subjects were asked to develop an intention to act and to veto about 100 to 200ms before the prearranged clock time
• Pre-event potential was still recorded before the prearranged time, even though no muscle activation occurred
• -> Preparatory cerebral processes associated with an RP can and do develop even when intended motor action is vetoed at approx. the time that conscious intention would normally appear before a voluntary act

Question 14

What did Soon want to investigate?

Answer 14

Directly investigate which regions of the brain predetermine conscious intentions and the time at which they start shaping the motor decision

Question 15

How did Soon set up his experiment?

Answer 15

• Freely paced motor-decision task
• Fixate on centre of screen where a stream of letters was presented
• At some point chose to press one of two buttons (left/right)
• In parallel they should remember the present letter
• After a response mapping screen appears: second button press to choose the letter
• Pattern-based decoders were trained to predict the specific outcome of a subject’s motor intention by recognising characteristic local brain patterns associated with each choice (fMRI)

Question 16

When was intention formed in participants in Soon’s experiment?

Answer 16

Intentions reported to be formed 1s before movement

Question 17

Which brain regions encoded the outcome during execution phase in Soon’s study?

Answer 17

Two brain regions: M1 and SMA

Question 18

Which brain regions prior to conscious decision encoded with high accuracy whether the subject was about to choose left or right?

Answer 18

-Two brain regions
 -> Frontopolar cortex: first cortical stage at which actual decision was made (7s before motor decision)
 -> Parietal cortex: precuneus involved in storage of the decision until it reached awareness

Question 19

Where and when did decoding of the time decision take place?

Answer 19

• was possible 5s preceding motor decision–> Pre-SMA and SMA
• Frontopolar and parietal cortex only knew just before the motor decision

Question 20

Which conclusion can be drawn from Soon’s study regarding where the outcome of a decision can be encoded?

Answer 20

• Outcome of a decision can be encoded in brain activity of prefrontal and parietal cortex up to 10s before it enters awareness
• -> SO, SMA is not the ultimate cortical decision stage where conscious intention is initiated

Question 21

Which conclusion can be drawn from Soon’s study regarding the regions that shape the specific outcomes and those that determine the timing?

Answer 21

double dissociation in very early stages

–> At later stages (right before conscious decision) both regions decode both

Question 22

What does the delay reflect in Soon’s study?

-Where do unconscious precursors of motor decision originate?

Answer 22

reflects the operation of a network of high-level control areas that begin to prepare an upcoming decision long before it enters awareness
–> originate in frontopolar cortex -> influence build-up of decision-related info in precuneus and later SMA (there it remains unconscious for up to a few seconds)

Question 23

How did Soon’s study go beyond Libet’s one?

Answer 23

• Allowed to determine long-term determinants of human intentions preceding the conscious intention far beyond the few hundred milliseconds observed over SMA
• Allowed to separately investigate each brain region and determine how much info each region had about the outcome of the decision
• Allowed to identify whether any leading brain activity indeed selectively predicted the outcome, rather than reflecting potentially non-specific preparatory processes

Question 24

What is the basic argument of Strawson?

And what’s the reasoning behind that?

Answer 24

==> we cannot truly/ultimately be morally responsible for our actions

1) Nothing can be causa sui (= cause of itself)
2) In order to be truly morally responsible for one’s actions, one would have to be causa sui (at least in certain crucial mental respects)
3) Therefore, nothing can be truly morally responsible

Question 25

What is the main claim of Strawson?

Reasoning behind this?

Answer 25

==> people cannot be supposed to change themselves in such a way as to be/become truly morally responsible for the way that they are and hence for their actions

1) One is the way one is (C-features) as a result of heredity and previous experience
2) One cannot at any later stage try to change the way one already is to accede true moral responsibility
3) The change will be determined by the way one already is as a result of heredity and experiences (S procedure)
4) If the changes are not due to those factors, they’re due to indeterministic/random factors, for which one isn’t responsible either

Question 26

What is true moral responsibility according to Strawson?

- Does it exist?

Answer 26

==> True moral responsibility: if it makes sense to suppose that it is just/fair to reward/punish someone
-Basic argument says there is no punishment/reward that is ultimately fair
-Situations of choice that regularly occur in human life are the reason why we believe in true moral responsibility –> feel like a self-conscious agent that can deliberate what to do

Question 27

What are responses against the basic argument of Strawson?

Answer 27

• To reject it, one must reject (2) the premise that to truly be morally responsible, one must truly be responsible for the way on is
• -> Determinism – doctrine that all events (incl. human action) are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will

Question 28

What is the position of compatabilists?

Answer 28

• One can truly be morally responsible even if determinism is true
• One is truly responsible as long as the actions are not caused by a certain set of constraints (e.g. OCD/ threat/…)
  (2) comes out false bc one doesn’t need to be truly responsible for how one is

Question 29

What is a problem of the compatabilists’ positions?

Answer 29

fails to amount for any sort of true moral responsibility

Question 30

What is the position of Incompatibilists?

Answer 30

believe that freedom and moral responsibility are incompatible with determinism

Question 31

What is the position of Libertarians?

Answer 31

we are free and morally responsible agents, therefore determinism is wrong

Question 32

What is a problem of libertarians’ positions?

Answer 32

• how can falsity of determinism help? How can occurrence of partly random/indeterministic events contribute in any way to one’s being truly morally responsible for one’s actions/character?
• -> Moral responsibility depends on the falsity of determinism but determinism isn’t falsifiable

Question 33

What is the position of the Third No Name Option?

Answer 33

• one cannot ultimately be held responsible of one’s character/ personality/ motivational structure (CPM), no matter whether determinism is true or false
• -> one can still truly be responsible for one’s decisions and actions bc. one’s self (S) is independent of one’s CPM

Question 34

What is a problem of the Third No Name Option?

Answer 34

whatever S decides, it decides as it does bc of the way it is –> so S must be responsible for the way it is in order for the objection to hold

Question 35

Critic on Libet’s study

Answer 35

• requires to watch both clock time and W at the same time

- absence of larger meaning than urge to do it

Question 36

3 controversies of RP

Answer 36

• RP generated by SMA –> info on late stages of motor planning or ist where it starts
• time delay too short before decision -> could lead to misjudgement of brain activity and intention
• Brain activity: decision making or only preparation?