The Will and its Brain

An Appraisal of Reasoned Free Will

By (author) Hans Helmut Kornhuber, Lüder Deecke

Publication date:

06 September 2012

Length of book:

110 pages

Publisher

UPA

ISBN-13: 9780761858560

In 1964–1965, Hans Helmut Kornhuber and Lüder Deecke achieved a scientific breakthrough with the discovery of the Bereitschaftspotential (BP), or readiness potential. In The Will and its Brain, Kornhuber and Deecke present evidence that proves we can record activity from the human brain occurring prior to our volitional movements or actions. Such preparatory activity is generated by specific brain regions, particularly by the supplementary motor area (SMA) of the frontal lobe, which lies on the inner surface of the brain between the hemispheres. The primary (precentral) motor cortex (MI) later becomes activated in preparing for action. Consequently, the authors discriminate between two components of the preparatory activity of the Bereitschaftspotential: an early SMA-generated BP1 and a late MI-derived BP2. Between BP1 and BP2, the intentional activity runs over the so-called motor loop via the basal ganglia. Kornhuber and Deecke discuss these and other brain processing systems while focusing on the concept of free will. They claim that we, indeed, have free will. It may not be absolutely free, but free in terms of degrees. We can take efforts to increase our degrees of freedom through self-improvement, but we can also lose degrees of freedom through self-mismanagement.

List of Figures
Foreword
Preface
Preface to the German Edition
Introduction — What is the Will?
Chapter One: The Will — History and Transcultural Aspects
Chapter Two: The Will — Its Association with Freedom
Chapter Three: The Will and Psychiatry/Psychology
Chapter Four: The Will and Neurophysiology/Brain Research
Chapter Five: The Will and New Psychology Schools
Chapter Six: The Will and the Real Function of the Frontal Lobe — Commander, Delegator, Supervisor and Rater
Chapter Seven: The Will and the Evolution of Man — Creativeness and Cooperation — Common Will
Chapter Eight: The Will and Dream Sleep, Feelings, Drives, Meaning-Happiness, Beauty, Love, Empathy and Theory of Mind
Chapter Nine: The Will and the Limbic System, the Hypothalamus, the Arousal System, Circadian Rhythm, the Endocrine System, Fatigue and Impetus
Chapter Ten: The Will is Not Strictly Coupled with Consciousness — There are Conscious and Unconscious Agendas in the Brain and Both are Important
Chapter Eleven: The Will — Is it Grounded upon Freedom or upon Total Determinism?
Chapter Twelve: The Will — Its Freedom is Not a Priori Granted: We Have to do Something for It — Actively Increasing our Degrees of Freedom
Summary
Bibliography
Index
Name Index

. . . required reading for anybody interested in what neuroscience has to say about our capacity to make responsible decisions and be captains of our own destiny.