ArticleeLife2019
Neural precursors of decisions that matter-an ERP study of deliberate and arbitrary choice.
Article in eLife, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed.
- Factors that influence the amplitude of the bereitschaftspotential.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026Review
- Action fluency and conscious intention: being aware of what we are about to do.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
- Neural mechanisms of awareness of action.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- Anxiety disorders alter cognitive-motor integration during visuomotor adaptation and retention.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Article
- Spatial Distance and Temporal Attentional Focus Modulate Voluntary Action Preparation and Awareness.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Voluntary action as problem-solving: an functional magnetic resonance imaging study.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Article
- Neuronal responses in the human primary motor cortex coincide with the subjective onset of movement intention in brain-machine interface-mediated actions.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Probing for intentions: The early readiness potential does not reflect awareness of motor preparation.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- A multi-measurement study of the relation between deliberation and volition.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2025Article
- Stoicism, mindfulness, and the brain: the empirical foundations of second-order desires.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Free Will as Defined by the Constrained Disorder Principle: a Restricted, Mandatory, Personalized, Regulated Process for Decision-Making.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2024Review
- Computational modeling of attractor-based neural processes involved in the preparation of voluntary actions.Cognitive neurodynamics · 2024Article
- Slow ramping emerges from spontaneous fluctuations in spiking neural networks.Nature communications · 2024Article
- No evidence for contextual cueing beyond explicit recognition.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Article
- Review
- Computational mechanisms underlying latent value updating of unchosen actions.Science advances · 2023Article
- What is the intention to move and when does it occur?Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Error monitoring when no errors are possible: Arbitrary free-choice decisions invoke error monitoring processes.iScience · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The readiness potential (RP)-a key ERP correlate of upcoming action-is known to precede subjects' reports of their decision to move. Some view this as evidence against a causal role for consciousness in human decision-making and thus against free-will. But previous work focused on arbitrary decisions-purposeless, unreasoned, and without consequences. It remains unknown to what degree the RP generalizes to deliberate, more ecological decisions. We directly compared deliberate and arbitrary decision-making during a $1000-donation task to non-profit organizations. While we found the expected RPs for arbitrary decisions, they were strikingly absent for deliberate ones. Our results and drift-diffusion model are congruent with the RP representing accumulation of noisy, random fluctuations that drive arbitrary-but not deliberate-decisions. They further point to different neural mechanisms underlying deliberate and arbitrary decisions, challenging the generalizability of studies that argue for no causal role for consciousness in decision-making to real-life decisions. Editorial note: This article has been through an editorial process in which the authors decide how to respond to the issues raised during peer review. The Reviewing Editor's assessment is that all the issues have been addressed (see decision letter).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.