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Nature Reviews Neuroscience 9, 410–411 (1 June 2008) | doi:10.1038/nrn2404

Neuroimaging: Free will?

Leonie Welberg

The question of whether humans have free will has been discussed for centuries by philosophers and religious scholars, and more recently by neuroscientists. Haynes and colleagues have now added fuel to the debate by showing that activity in two non-motor-related cortical areas can predict the outcome of a movement decision up to 10 seconds before an individual becomes aware of the decision.