:-) Maybe, but unlikely. Even though Haggard doesn't cite a single paper on invertebrates (I've emailed him about that), his arguments and experiments work analogously in invertebrates. If anything, the neuroscience of volition abolishes any last remnants of dualism that may linger somewhere. See also our paper on the topic: http://www.plosone.org/doi/pon... lay explanation: http://brembs.net/spontaneous - Björn Brembs
@Bjorn I had seen your paper - very cool stuff indeed. One of the issues with "free will" is that we feel free to do what we want but we are not free to control what we want. Still I think Descartes would have been delighted to be proven wrong - given what was known at the time he made a reasonable guess. - Jean-Claude Bradley
finally got around to reading the paper, good stuff. I like the 'volition as opposed to stimulus-driven behavior' setup. looking forward to more research into the processes by which the precursors of voluntary actions first emerge in the prefrontal cortex/basal ganglia; the means by which these processes can be strengthened in people suffering from poor self-control; and the social and societal effects of abandoning 'traditional concepts of moral responsibility' and dualism. - Christopher Harris
I'd say "precursors of voluntary actions" emerged long before there were any basal ganglia :-) But I guess that's not what you were trying to say? - Björn Brembs
oh I agree, using the language of this paper even a snail's occasional exploratory feeding cycles might classify as free will :) but I'd like to be able to visualize what the process looks like in my own head and i'm guessing at its core is stochastic emergence of behavior-driving cell assemblies in the prefrontal cortex (but then what's the role of the basal ganglia etc etc). - Christopher Harris
Phooey: quick-and-dirty calc using GS gives N=196, h=9. I suck. - Bill Hooker
Web of Science gives N=188, h=10. Maureen, you have access to WoS through OHSU, and it will autocalculate an h-index for you. - Bill Hooker
If you're lazy, Maureen or others, Publish or Perish http://www.harzing.com/pop.htm will calculate it for you. Mine's around 6, but when this latest manuscript comes out, that should give me a little spike. - Mr. Gunn
