The Will and its Brain

By Hans Helmut Kornhuber and Lüder Deecke

In 1964-1965, Hans Helmut Kornhuber and Lüder Deecke achieved a scientific breakthrough with the discovery of the Bereitschaftspotential (BP), or readiness potential. In The Will and its Brain, Kornhuber and Deecke present evidence that proves we can record activity from the human brain occurring prior to our volitional movements or actions. Such preparatory activity is generated by specific brain regions, particularly by the supplementary motor area (SMA) of the frontal lobe, which lies on the inner surface of the brain between the hemispheres. The primary (precentral) motor cortex (MI) later becomes activated in preparing for action. Consequently, the authors discriminate between two components of the preparatory activity of the Bereitschaftspotential: an early SMA-generated BP1 and a late MI-derived BP2. Between BP1 and BP2, the intentional activity runs over the so-called motor loop via the basal ganglia. Kornhuber and Deecke discuss these and other brain processing systems while focusing on the concept of free will. They claim that we, indeed, have free will. It may not be absolutely free, but free in terms of degrees. We can take efforts to increase our degrees of freedom through self-improvement, but we can also lose degrees of freedom through self-mismanagement.

List of FiguresForewordPrefacePreface to the German EditionIntroduction - What is the Will?Chapter One: The Will - History and Transcultural AspectsChapter Two: The Will - Its Association with FreedomChapter Three: The Will and Psychiatry/PsychologyChapter Four: The Will and Neurophysiology/Brain ResearchChapter Five: The Will and New Psychology SchoolsChapter Six: The Will and the Real Function of the Frontal Lobe - Commander, Delegator, Supervisor and RaterChapter Seven: The Will and the Evolution of Man - Creativeness and Cooperation - Common WillChapter Eight: The Will and Dream Sleep, Feelings, Drives, Meaning-Happiness, Beauty, Love, Empathy and Theory of MindChapter Nine: The Will and the Limbic System, the Hypothalamus, the Arousal System, Circadian Rhythm, the Endocrine System, Fatigue and ImpetusChapter Ten: The Will is Not Strictly Coupled with Consciousness - There are Conscious and Unconscious Agendas in the Brain and Both are ImportantChapter Eleven: The Will - Is it Grounded upon Freedom or upon Total Determinism?Chapter Twelve: The Will - Its Freedom is Not a Priori Granted: We Have to do Something for It - Actively Increasing our Degrees of FreedomSummaryBibliographyIndexName Index