Neuroscience

A neurologist is examining a patient who suffered frontal lobe damage from a stroke. The doctor sets a pair of glasses on the table between them during the examination. The patient reaches out, picks up the glasses, and puts them on-over the pair of glasses he’s already wearing. The doctor, curious, places another pair of glasses on the table. The patient picks them up and puts them on. Now he’s wearing three pairs of glasses, stacked on top of each other. ...

At 3:47 PM on a Tuesday, I decided to quit my job and start a company. Or did I? Maybe the decision was already made by unconscious neural processes seconds before I became aware of it. Maybe my genes, my upbringing, my brain chemistry, and the exact configuration of neurons firing that afternoon determined that choice, and the feeling of choosing was just a story my brain told itself afterward. ...