Free Will

[skb]

Have you ever gone ahead and eaten that piece of chocolate, despite yourself?

Do you inadvertently make decisions because you are hungry or cold? In other words, does the brain's processing of internal bodily signals interfere with your ability to act freely?

This line of thinking is at the heart of research that questions our ability to act on thoughts of free will. We already know that inner body signals, like the heartbeat, affect our mental states, can be used to reduce the perception of pain and are of fundamental importance for bodily self-consciousness.

Thanks to a new discovery, it turns out that these inner body signals do indeed affect acts of volition.

Scientists at EPFL in Switzerland have shown that you are more likely to initiate a voluntary decision as you exhale.

Article / Study

[Tamagno]

The question of "free will" is one whose history is littered with much mayhem.

Very simply, if I, to paraphrase Richard Dawkins and various geneticists, am merely "dancing to the tune of my DNA," than I haven't any hope of consciously altering any behavior at all and haven't any hope of overcoming any disease or difficulties caused by maladaptive behaviors. I don't buy it.