Inability to exercise "free will"

Emilie Caspar and Axel Cleeremans of the Free University of Brussels (ULB) in Belgium made the decision to
investigate whether or not the same was true in impulsive individuals who were otherwise healthy. In order to
establish the level of impulsivity that each of the 72 participants had, they had them complete standard
questionnaires. The participants were then asked to take part in an experiment similar to that conducted by Libet
while the researchers collected their EEG signals.

People who were thought to be impulsive did, in fact, have shorter time intervals between their conscious
knowledge of the desire to act and the moment when the action actually took place. The shorter the delay, the
greater the degree to which they acted on impulse.

Caspar thinks that this might imply that impulsive people have less time to inhibit or control their activities. "It
could indicate that maybe impulsive persons have less time to,"

Aaron Schurger, who has worked on understanding the ramifications of the Libet experiment and works at the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, warns that any conclusions rely on how you interpret the
numerous signals. According to his own research, the readiness potential is not a signal that the brain is getting
ready to act; rather, it is a signature of random neural noise that accumulates and then crosses a threshold,
making movement possible. This suggests that the readiness potential is not a signal that the brain is getting
ready to act.

However, the interpretation of the readiness potential offered by Libet is still favored by a significant number of
neuroscientists. According to Schurger, the results of the research demonstrate that "impulsive persons have less
time to'veto' their actions since the choice to act occurs significantly closer in time to the action itself."

"Leaving aside arguments about interpretation, the findings might point towards new avenues of research in the
study of impulsivity and related syndromes like bipolar disorder," says Schurger. "The findings might point
towards new avenues of research in the study of impulsivity and related syndromes like bipolar disorder."

Neuroscience of Consciousness, DOI: 10.1093/nc/niv009, is the name of the scholarly publication.