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The neuroscience of free will: implications for psychiatry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2013

J. M. Pierre
J. M. Pierre*
Affiliation:
11301 Wilshire Boulevard, Building 210, Room 15, Los Angeles, CA 90073, USA
*
* Address for correspondence: J. M. Pierre, M.D., 11301 Wilshire Boulevard, Building 210, Room 15, Los Angeles, CA 90073, USA. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Belief in free will has been a mainstay in philosophy throughout history, grounded in large part in our intuitive sense that we consciously control our actions and could have done otherwise. However, psychology and psychiatry have long sought to uncover mechanistic explanations for human behavior that challenge the notion of free will. In recent years, neuroscientific discoveries have produced a model of volitional behavior that is at odds with the notion of contra-causal free will and our sense of conscious agency. Volitional behavior instead appears to have antecedents in unconscious brain activity that is localizable to specific neuroanatomical structures. Updating notions of free will in favor of a continuous model of volitional self-control provides a useful paradigm to conceptualize and study some forms of psychopathology such as addiction and impulse control disorders. Similarly, thinking of specific symptoms of schizophrenia as disorders of agency may help to elucidate mechanisms of psychosis. Beyond clinical understanding and etiological research, a neuroscientific model of volitional behavior has the potential to modernize forensic notions of responsibility and criminal punishment in order to inform public policy. Ultimately, moving away from the language of free will towards the language of volitional control may result in an enhanced understanding of the very nature of ourselves.

Keywords

Addictionagencyfree willschizophreniaself-controlvolition
Type
Review Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 44 , Issue 12 , September 2014 , pp. 2465 - 2474
Creative Commons
This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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