Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain

Abstract

There has been a long controversy as to whether subjectively 'free' decisions are determined by brain activity ahead of time. We found that the outcome of a decision can be encoded in brain activity of prefrontal and parietal cortex up to 10 s before it enters awareness. This delay presumably reflects the operation of a network of high-level control areas that begin to prepare an upcoming decision long before it enters awareness.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Measuring the onset time of conscious motor intentions.
Figure 2: Decoding the outcome of decisions before and after they reached awareness.

References

  1. Libet, B. et al. Behav. Brain Sci. 8, 529–566 (1985).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Wegner, D.M. Trends Cogn. Sci. 7, 65–69 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Haggard, P. Trends Cogn. Sci. 9, 290–295 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Van de Grind, W. Conscious Cogn. 11, 241–264 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Glynn, I.M. Nature 348, 477–479 (1990).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Joordens, S., van Duijn, M. & Spalek, T.M. Conscious. Cogn. 11, 231–240 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Eccles, J.C. Arch. Psychiatr. Nervenkr. 231, 423–441 (1982).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Tranel, D. & Damasio, A.R. Science 275, 1293–1295 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Koechlin, E., Basso, G., Pietrini, P., Panzer, S. & Grafman, J. Nature 399, 148–151 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Burgess, P.W., Quayle, A. & Frith, C.D. Neuropsychologia 39, 545–555 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Haynes, J.D. et al. Curr. Biol. 17, 323–328 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Hampton, A.N. & O'Doherty, J.P. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 1377–1382 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Lau, H.C., Rogers, R.D., Haggard, P. & Passingham, R.E. Science 303, 1208–1210 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Haggard, P. & Eimer, M. Exp. Brain Res. 126, 128–133 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Haynes, J.D. & Rees, G. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 7, 523–534 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank D. Passingham and H. Lau for valuable comments and T. Mildner and S. Zysset for help with scanning. This work was funded by the Max Planck Society and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

J.-D.H., C.S.S., M.B. and H.-J.H. conceived the experiment. C.S.S. and J.-D.H. carried out the experiment. C.S.S. analyzed the data. J.-D.H. and C.S.S. wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John-Dylan Haynes.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–9, Table 1, Methods and Discussion (PDF 488 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Soon, C., Brass, M., Heinze, HJ. et al. Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nat Neurosci 11, 543–545 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2112

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2112

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing