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Benjamin Libet - Libet's short delay.

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Saved by 2 people (0 private), first by anonymouse user on 2009-03-17


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whatever the voltage or frequency of the pulses, the stimulus had to persist for about 500 milliseconds before the subject became consciously aware of it.

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But we also respond to events, and here a delay is highly relevant and noticeable.

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our unconscious responses are far quicker than our conscious ones

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Libet's hypothesis was that conscious awareness is subjectively referred backwards in time. We consciously perceive the stimulus as occuring at the same moment it registers unconsciously, even though it doesn't in fact enter our awareness until it has persisted for half a second. Subjectively we backdate it to match the EP at the beginning rather than the end of the 500 millisecond span.

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Perhaps the sensations actually enter conscious awareness immediately, and the half-second delay merely allows time for them to become reportable, or fixed in short term memory? Perhaps we are merely dealing with the difference between being aware of the stimulus, and being aware that we are aware of it? Libet contends that awareness and memory, especially declarative, explicit memory, are different and independent phenomena. 

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the perceived time at which we make a decision must also be subjectively referred back by 500 milliseconds. Unlikely as it seems, and contrary to our own impression, we must have made our decisions slightly before we actually become aware of them.

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This 'Readiness Potential' or RP appeared about 800 milliseconds in advance of the act, and seemed to be a clear indication that the intention to act had formed.

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the RP appeared some 500 milliseconds before the reported awareness of a decision to move

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free will was a delusion

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Although the subject's decision to move occurred too early for it to have been initiated by conscious thought, there was still - just - a window of opportunity in which conscious awareness might conceivably veto the move.

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Is the RP really a signal that a decision has been made?

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Might not the RP merely signal a quickening of attention, rather than a moment of decision?

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isn't it possible that we need a certain amount of time just in order to report the awareness to ourselves?

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his proposed CMF is an emergent phenomenon: something that arises from the combination of active neurons but amounts to something distinctively more than, and different from, the sum of brain activity.

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