Action and the Problem of Free Will

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Gallagher
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Pure Consciousness ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Traditional Notion ◽  
Intentional Actions ◽  
Neuronal Processes

This chapter examines the concept of free will as it is discussed in philosophy and neuroscience. It reviews reflective and perceptual theories of agency and argues against neuro-centric conclusions about the illusory nature of free will. Experiments conducted by Benjamin Libet suggest that neural activations prior to conscious awareness predict specific actions. This has been taken as evidence that challenges the traditional notion of free will. Libet’s experiments, arguably, are about motor control processes on an elementary timescale and say nothing about freely willed intentional actions embedded in personal and social contexts that involve longer-term, narrative timescales. One implication of this interpretation is that enactivism is not a form of simple behaviorism. Agency is not a thing reducible to elementary neuronal processes; nor is it an idea or a pure consciousness. It rather involves a structure of complex relations.

Defining consciousness

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 561-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Gallagher
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Phenomenological Description ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
The Common

I review the problem of how to define consciousness. I suggest that rather than continuing that debate, we should turn to phenomenological description of experience to discover the common aspects of consciousness. In this way we can say that consciousness is characterized by intentionality, phenomenality, and non-reflective self-awareness. I explore this last characteristic in detail and I argue against higher-order representational theories of consciousness, with reference to blindsight and motor control processes.

A Contribution to the Role of the Claustrum in Speech Motor Control Processes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred Pützer ◽  
Jean Richard Moringlane ◽  
Wolfgang Reith ◽  
Christoph M. Krick
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Speech Motor

Neurodevelopmental motor disorders

2020 ◽  
pp. 357-370
Author(s):  
Davide Martino ◽  
Antonella Macerollo
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Sensorimotor Integration ◽  
Learning Control ◽  
Tic Disorders ◽  
Tourette’S Syndrome ◽  
Motor Disorder ◽  
Motor Disorders ◽  
Neuronal Processes

Neurodevelopmental motor disorders are a group of conditions characterized by developmental deficits in learning, control, and execution of motor skills. The pathophysiology of these cognitive–motor dysfunctions involves complex neuronal processes of sensorimotor integration (that is, somatosensory, proprioceptive, visual, and vestibular), as well as motor control pathways (that is, cortico-basal ganglia, cerebello-thalamo-cortical, and intracortical networks). The most common neurodevelopmental motor disorders are tic disorders (including Tourette’s syndrome), stereotypic motor disorder, and developmental co-ordination disorder. Here, the chapter provides a useful clinical guide regarding the phenomenology, pathogenesis, and management of these conditions.

Stuttering

1981 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald N. Zimmermann ◽  
Anne Smith ◽  
John M. Hanley
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Motor Pathways ◽  
Physiological Variables ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Sensory Motor ◽  
Muscle Groups ◽  
Similar Motor ◽  
Therapeutic Considerations

Perceptually fluent and disfluent speech reflect a continuum of coordination and can be best understood in terms of similar motor control processes. Speech movements may be considered to result from the interaction of inputs to motoneuron pools which alter the tuning of sensory-motor pathways and triggering inputs to specific muscles and muscle groups. A disorder in coordination may occur when any of these inputs is aberrantly affected by psychological, psychosocial or physiological variables. Specific phenomena associated with stuttering--adaptation, masking, whispering and voicing deviations--are interpreted in terms of these neuromotor processes. Therapeutic considerations are discussed.

scholarly journals Lateralized motor control processes determine asymmetry of interlimb transfer

Neuroscience ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 334 ◽  
pp. 26-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Sainburg ◽  
Sydney Y. Schaefer ◽  
Vivek Yadav
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Control Processes
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