that we can predict the future and that we can, for instance, determine what you are going to eat for lunch two weeks from now, or who you are going to marry.
"We are saying that volition (like other aspects of consciousness) is a brain phenomenon that is instantiated by physical hardware, i.e. neurons. We are making claims about volition for very simple tasks, such as moving an index finger or choosing which hand to use, over scales of hundreds of milliseconds to seconds. Nothing more. Nothing less.
"Ultimately, our actions depend on multiple variables, several of which are external (for instance, it rains, hence, I will take my umbrella) and cannot be decoded or predicted from neurons. However, our volitional decision of whether to take the red umbrella or the blue one today -- ultimately perhaps the real core of free will -- is dictated by neurons," Prof Kreiman will conclude.
 A micrometre is one millionth of a metre -- approximately one hundred times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
 The research was funded by the US National Institutes of Health and the US National Science Foundation.
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