The Neuroscience of Freedom and Creativity: Our Predictive Brain

Professor Joaquín M. Fuster is an eminent cognitive neuroscientist whose research over the last five decades has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the neural structures underlying cognition and behaviour. This book provides his view on the eternal question of whether we have free will. Based on his seminal work on the functions of the prefrontal cortex in decision-making, planning, creativity, working memory, and language, Professor Fuster argues that the liberty or freedom to choose between alternatives is a function of the cerebral cortex, under prefrontal control, in its reciprocal interaction with the environment. Freedom is therefore inseparable from that circular relationship. The Neuroscience of Freedom and Creativity is a fascinating inquiry into the cerebral foundation of our ability to choose between alternative actions and to freely lead creative plans to their goal.
• Ties together the facts from diverse methodologies of brain science to provide a plausible explanation of what guides our choices and makes us the masters of our own destiny
• Emphasises the importance of the perception/action (PA) cycle as the interface between cortex and environment and the ultimate neural substrate for our ability to choose and to create
• Highlights the speech PA cycle and exposes the role of language and its neural substrate in societal freedom, innovation and ethical behaviour