Your brain acts before you know you've decided to

Benjamin Libet asked people to flick their wrist whenever they felt like it, while recording their brain activity and the exact moment they felt the urge to move. A measurable spike in brain activity appeared several hundred milliseconds before people reported consciously deciding to act — reopening the debate over free will.

— Benjamin Libet, Curtis A. Gleason, Elwood W. Wright, Dennis K. Pearl, Time of Conscious Intention to Act in Relation to Onset of Cerebral Activity (Readiness-Potential) — Brain, 1983

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