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How neuroscience accounts for the illusion of conscious will

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2005

Masao Ito*
Affiliation:
Brain Science Institute, Institution RIKEN, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan

Abstract:

Wegner's monograph presents the view that conscious will is a feeling that we experience when we perform an action through a mechanistic process of the brain, rather than a mental force that causes the action. The view is supported by several lines of evidence in which conscious will is dissociated from the actual performance of voluntary movements, as in automatism. The book further extends an insightful analysis of the mental system behind the illusion of conscious will and inspires neuroscientists to reflect on its neural substrates.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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