Research library

Brain-Computer Interface tool use and the Contemplation Conundrum: a blueprint of mental action, agency, and control

Mehta · Oxford Open Neuroscience

This philosophy paper, with no new data, is about people who control a computer through a brain implant by imagining movements. It argues that the brain activity of weighing possible moves may look like that of imagining the chosen move, so a device could act on a passing thought, making an action voluntary but, on some theories of action, not intended. Using a hypothetical implant user with aphantasia, it proposes comparing users with and without aphantasia to help find signals that separate an intended move from moves merely considered.