Scientific Sirigu
- Created by: cesca.sharp
- Created on: 13-12-19 10:17
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- Sirigu
- Who is Angela Sirigu?
- Sirigu (1956-) is an Italian-born scientist whose training is in neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. She is based at the Uni of Lyon and is involved in applying a range of techniques to discover the functions of different brain regions.
- Evidence that the brain allows for free will
- Sirigu led a study in 2009 for the Cognitive Neuroscience Centre in Bron, France, that investigated the functions of different areas of the brain. The research involved experimentation on seven patients who were undergoing brain surgery to remove tumours. These patients were conscious and were able to report their experiences.
- Sirigu and her team stimulated two areas of the brain with probes:
- Premotor cortex- when stimulated, movement occurred but it was involuntary. Patients were unaware and even denied having moved. Feeds back the results of the instructions to the parietal cortex.
- Parietal cortex- with weak stimulation, patients felt the desire to move. With strong stimulation, patients reported having moved yet researchers witnessed no movement. Generates predictions about possible movements. Select and sends instructions to the premotor cortex.
- The discoveries demonstrated that the two regions work together in bringing about movement. Also might imply several things about our free will: that the place in the brain where the free decision can be made to act has been identified. That the parietal cortex is responsible for 'selecting' behaviour from a range of choices. Or alternatively, that the decision to act is not free at all because it is stimulated (cause) by a material event. (The sensation that we will to do something could be illusory, the neurons fire, then we feel an urge to act).
- Keywords
- Cognitive neuroscience- the scientific study of the biological processes that underlie mental action.
- Parietal cortex- part of the brain that resides behind the frontal lobe at the back of the parietal lobe. It seems to be involved in planning movement.
- Premotor complex- part of the brain that resides in the frontal lobe and seems to affect physical movement.
- Typical mistake- Sirigu was not a libertarian scholar and isn't arguing that this proof that we are free. Her research has shown us where in the brain the sensation of free will resides. Philosophically, we can interpret this as evidence for free will, or we could use it to confirm, a belief in determinism.
- Who is Angela Sirigu?
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