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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 June 2012
Benjamin Libet's influential publications have raised important questions about voluntarist accounts of action. His findings are taken as evidence that the processes in the central nervous system associated with the initiation of an action occur earlier than the decision to act. However, in light of the methods employed and of relevant findings drawn from research addressed to the timing of neurobehavioural processes, Libet's conclusions are untenable.
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2 As a given response recorded from the surface of the scalp is far weaker than the background electrical activity of the brain, an averaging procedure is required if the stimulus-locked reactions are to be distinguished from the background.
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