Revisiting Libet's paradigm

In 1983, Benjamin Libet discovered a pattern of neural activity that precedes the\ud conscious intention to perform a free-willed action. This electrical potential, referred to as\ud the readiness potential (RP), suggested that unconscious processes initiate voluntary\ud action and challenged lay conceptions of free will. To dispute the criticism that the RP\ud does not represent the ???intention to move???, because participants had already decided\ud which action to perform at the beginning of the trial, Study 1 introduces a novel\ud experimental design to control for participants??? response certainty. Results showed an\ud RP-like pattern preceding the time at which participants reported entering the decision\ud phase, suggesting Libet???s decision-time reports were correct. In Study 2, we used Libet???s\ud temporal judgment task to investigate how trained versus untrained motor responses to an\ud audio cue influence participants??? perception of time. Results revealed that there was no\ud change in the temporal interval between anticipatory behavior and perceptual awareness,\ud suggesting that anticipatory motor activity, such as the RP, may not affect the entry of\ud representations into awareness. While these studies support aspects of Libet???s initial\ud findings, further research is necessary to determine the role of the RP in volitional acts