JUNE is a publication of Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) www.funjournal.org ARTICLE Electroencephalography (EEG) and Free Will: A lab exercise bridging

As the techniques available to neuroscientists become more sophisticated, topics once relegated to philosophical debates have begun to reemerge as legitimate, albeit controversial, research questions. The issue of free will is a prime example as modern electrophysiological and imaging methods have begun to provide data, which some claim preclude its very existence. To help science and non-science majors grapple with the technical and philosophical issues surrounding this topic, I developed the following lab to replicate a seminal study by Benjamin Libet. This controversial work is often cited as one of the first empirical attempts to explore consciousness. Here I describe a lab exercise that reproduces much of the original study so that students may experience first-hand the strengths and limitations of this approach. When combined with a didactic introduction to various philosophical perspectives on free will, the lab provides students with experiential context through which they are able to gain a better understanding of this challenging topic. Key words: free will, electroencephalogram (EEG)