GRE Reading Comprehension
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Source: PP2
In the 1980s, neuroscientists studying the brain processes underlying our sense of conscious will compared subject's judgments regarding their subjective will to move (W) and actual movement (M) with objective electroenphalographic activity called readiness potential, or RP. As expected, W preceded M: subjects consciously perceived the intention to move as preceding a conscious experience of actually moving. This might, seem to suggest in appropriate correspondence between the sequence of subjective experiences and the sequence of the underlying events in the brain But researchers actually found a surprising temporal relation between subjective experience and objectively measured neural events in direct, contradiction of the classical conception of free will, neural preparation to move (RP) preceded conscious awareness of the intention to move (W) by hundreds of milliseconds.
The author of the passage mentions the classical conception of free will primarily in order to
- A argue that earlier theories regarding certain brain processes were based on false assumptions
- B suggest a possible flaw in the reasoning of neuroscientists conducting the study discussed in the passage
- C provide a possible explanation for the unexpected results obtained by neuroscientists
- D cast doubt on neuroscientists' conclusions regarding the temporal sequence of brain processes
- E indicate the reason that the results of the neuroscientists' study were surprising