Journal of Translational Neurosciences

Can we survive without Free-Will?

Several studies demonstrate that people believe in free-will (FW) existence; however, people are not so confident in FW when judging others’ actions; they self-justify by saying that individual FW may be frustrated by a lot of involuntary interferences. Lacking the demonstration of a Soul-inhabited Self,scientific evidenceslead to conclude that FW is an illusion. Yet, why isthe idea of possessing FW so deeply rooted in mind? Our mind manifeststwo alternative perspectives aboutthe Sense of Agency, i.e. an emotional, 1st-person perspective (1PP) and a rational 3rd-person perspective (3PP), respectively. The first one is raising during action execution, while the second one is raising a-posteriori. Moreover, 1PP deludes the mind that individual FW intervenes in action decision-making, while 3PP denies FW on logical bases. To explain this apparent paradox, we proposed “The Bignetti Model” (TBM), a cognitive model thatstands on two pillars: a) Mind exhibits a dual working modality, respectively corresponding to a conscious (explicit) and an unconscious (implicit) state (note these terms have no connections with psychanalysis); b) FW illusion necessarily plays a fundamental role incognition. In synthesis, TBM foresees these compulsory steps: 1) The Unconscious computational mind (U) reacts to stimuli by applying the paradigm found in long-term-memory (LTM), with the highest probability of success. 2) With a tiny delay, Conscious mind (C) is informed of the action by feed-back sensory signals. 3) Then C feels responsible for the action (FW illusion) and self-congratulates or not, depending on the outcomes (learning process). 4) As in a sort of operant conditioning, C will up-date the paradigm in LTM archives, i.e. a useful step for a future action decision-making (restart from 1). Up to now, TBM has been challenged only by means of psychophysical press/no-press tests; more studies with imaging techniques are needed.

Enrico Bignetti