What is the role of consciousness in volition and decision-making? Are our actions fully determined by brain activity preceding our decisions to act, or can consciousness instead affect the brain activity leading to action? This has been much debated in philosophy, but also in science since the famous experiments by Libet in the 1980s, where the current most common interpretation is that conscious free will is an illusion. It seems that the brain knows, up to several seconds in advance what “you” decide to do. These studies have, however, been criticized, and alternative interpretations of the experiments can be given, some of which are discussed in this paper. In an attempt to elucidate the processes involved in decision-making (DM), as an essential part of volition, we have developed a computational model of relevant brain structures and their neurodynamics. While DM is a complex process, we have particularly focused on the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) for its emotional, and the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) for its cognitive aspects. In this paper, we present a stochastic population model representing the neural information processing of DM. Simulation results seem to confirm the notion that if decisions have to be made fast, emotional processes and aspects dominate, while rational processes are more time consuming and may result in a delayed decision. Finally, some limitations of current science and computational modeling will be discussed, hinting at a future development of science, where consciousness and free will may add to chance and necessity as explanation for what happens in the world.

意识在意志和决策中起什么作用？我们的行动是否完全由我们做出行动决定之前的大脑活动决定，或者意识是否可以影响导致行动的大脑活动？自 20 世纪 80 年代 Libet 的著名实验以来，这一点在哲学界和科学界一直备受争议，目前最常见的解释是有意识的自由意志是一种幻觉。大脑似乎提前几秒钟就知道“你”决定做什么。然而，这些研究受到了批评，并且可以给出对实验的替代解释，其中一些在本文中进行了讨论。为了阐明决策（DM）作为意志的重要组成部分所涉及的过程，我们开发了相关大脑结构及其神经动力学的计算模型。虽然 DM 是一个复杂的过程，但我们特别关注杏仁核和眶额皮层 (OFC) 的情感方面，以及外侧前额叶皮层 (LPFC) 的认知方面。在本文中，我们提出了一个代表 DM 神经信息处理的随机群体模型。模拟结果似乎证实了这样的观点：如果必须快速做出决策，情感过程和方面会占主导地位，而理性过程则更耗时，可能会导致决策延迟。最后，将讨论当前科学和计算模型的一些局限性，暗示科学的未来发展，意识和自由意志可能会增加机会和必然性，作为对世界上发生的事情的解释。