Distinguished Lecture Series: Hans Breiter (Boston)
For 5,000 years since the beginning of the modern era, free will has been seen as the agent of behavior. We have minimal scientific understanding of this process, and no quantitative model as in physics, thereby limiting our ability to understand the basis for behavior and of behavior change. Some philosophers suggest that one cannot have a quantitative model (i.e., a deterministic control system following laws or principles) for free will because they appear to contradict determinism. A potential solution for this contradiction between free will and determinism has been suggested by recently discovered mathematical relationships regarding preference-based judgment and decision-making. These relationships (referred to as relative preference theory or RPT) meet engineering criteria to be considered law-like, and are statistically associated with measures of brain circuitry and genetics. The law-like patterns in RPT appear to provide quantitative definitions for each of the components of free will identified in a modern approach to the topic by Pauen. The components of free will in the Pauen model include: (1) preference-based self-determination, (2) will power (i.e., ability to change or modify your action), (3) inhibitory control, and (4) the capacity to identify a “range of alternative options” available to choice behavior. Although one of these components, inhibitory control, has been the focus of much neuroscience starting with Mischel and continuing with Anslie, Everitt and Robbins, Haggard, and others, the other components have not been the focus of significant study. In this talk we will discuss a quantitative model of free will that merges the framework of Pauen with the mathematical relationships regarding preference-based judgment and decision-making in RPT. RPT combines critical features of reward/aversion function described by prospect theory, the matching law, and alliesthesia, and does so using variables based within the individual and independent of a stimulus-response framework. It provides unique signatures for pathologies in the expression of free will, such as addiction, which can be connected to quantitative alterations in cortical thickness in addicts. Lastly, RPT scales between measures of group behavior and individual behavior, and may scale to measures of circuitry function, pointing to interesting topics for future research. Hans Breiter MD is a researcher at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. All are welcome! The Berlin School of Mind and Brain runs a mailing list to advertise lectures and seminars. Subscribe by sending a blank e-mail to: mind.brain.verteiler-subscribe@lists.hu-berlin.de
