Simple Brain Mechanisms Explain Arbitrary Human Visual Decisions

piggy submitted, created time 1 month 4 weeks (www.sciencedaily.com)

Mark Twain, a skeptic of the idea of free will, argues in his essay "What Is Man?" that humans do not command their minds or the opinions they form. "You did not form that [opinion]," a speaker identified as "old man" says in the essay. "Your [mental] machinery did it for you—automatically and instantly, without reflection or the need of it."

Twain's views get a boost this week from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and University of Chieti, Italy

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Brain scanner predicts your future moves

sea-maid submitted, created time 7 months 1 week (www.newscientist.com)

By scanning the brains of test subjects as they pressed one button or another--though not a computer mouse--researchers pinpointed a signal that divulged the decision about seven seconds before people ever realised their choice. The discovery has implications for mind-reading, and the nature of free will

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DNA tests offer deeper examination of accused

Sue Wu submitted, created time 8 months 2 weeks (www.msnbc.msn.com)

Twenty years after DNA fingerprints were first admitted by American courts as a way to link suspects to crime scenes, a new and very different class of genetic test is approaching the bench.

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decisions are made before you even know it

jane2007 submitted, created time 8 months 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

According to researchers, your brain makes up its mind up to ten seconds before you realize it.

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