Libet’s participants believed that they were making a conscious decision to move (at random intervals) and that decision was causing their hand to move. But to Libet, the sequence of events told a different story: participants became conscious of their decision to move after the process had already begun.

Many neuroscientists interpreted these results as evidence against the traditional view of free will. If the brain activity related to a movement begins well before our conscious decision, how could our conscious decision to move be the cause of our movement?