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ABCNEWS.com : Mad or Rad: Froggy Free Will
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Froggy Free Will
Frog contemplating
 

To hop, or not to hop; that is the question. (A.Shepherd/ ABCNEWS.com)




By David George Gordon
Special to ABCNEWS.com
Is there such a thing as free will?
     Paul Grobstein sought to answer this philosophical question by feeding a batch of lab-raised leopard frogs.
     Presented with a live mealworm, each of the frogs took a slightly different approach — hopping left, right or straight ahead before scarfing the wriggling snack down.
     “The frogs were following what is commonly known as the Harvard Law of Animal Behavior,” says Grobstein, a professor of biology at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.
     “Under carefully controlled experimental circumstances, an animal does what it damned well pleases,” he chuckles.

Road Map of Nerves
As a graduate student in the 1970s, Grobstein spent his days tracing the circuitry of the nervous system.
     “Back then, the idea was that human behavior was directed by the arrangement of neurons in the brain,” he explains. “If you knew the wiring diagram, you could hypothetically predict the behavior that would follow.”
     Most scientists believed the wiring diagram was largely determined by genetic information. Later, says Grobstein, they realized that life experiences also affect the diagram and shape human behavior.
     However, as Grobstein’s frog research — and the Harvard Law of Animal Behavior — have shown, it’s not nearly as simple as that.
     “If the only things that matter are the genome and experience, then a frog should do the same thing every time it’s exposed to the same stimulus,” the biologist suggests.
     The reason a frog (or a person) responds differently to an external stimulus can be traced to what Grobstein calls “intrinsic variability” — the ever changing state of the nervous system.
     “The system is not designed to give a single ‘right’ response,” he says. “Rather, it’s designed to explore, to try things out. By doing things differently, you can discover new things.”
     Here’s how it works:
     The unconscious part of the mind reacts to a stimulus and presents its finding to the conscious part. The conscious part can either accept this finding or reject it and request another.
     “And for me, that process is a reasonably satisfying description of free will,” Grobstein says.

Not Everyone’s a Believer
Grobstein’s thoughts about frogs and free will have been posted on his Serendip Web site, to mixed reviews from his peers.
     “The issue of free will is not something that most academics regard as scientific,” he admits.
     Still, his way of looking at a things could have important social implications. In a court of law, for example, it’s often necessary to establish whether a defendant was responsible for whatever he did.
     “If what I’m saying makes sense, then someone is responsible for their behavior only if their brain is organized in such a way that allows them to veto a particular perception and ask for another one,” Grobstein says. “It’s not hard to imagine how things such as brain damage could interfere with personal responsibility and free will.”
     Grobstein’s views could also influence life in the college classroom.
     “Instead of telling students there’s a right way to see things, we should be helping them maximize the number of ways to see things,” the free-thinking frog philosopher says.
    
David Gordon David George Gordon’s column appears every Friday. His latest book, The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook, is published by Ten Speed Press.

And the Winners Are …
Readers responded to this year’s quest for the Maddest and Raddest sites on the Web with an impressive assortment of entries. Heartfelt congratulations and a complimentary copy of The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook go to the three winners:
     Michael Barbosa, for alerting us to www.trepan.com — a nicely designed site devoted to trepanation — an ancient technique to release evil spirits by knocking a hole in the skull. (Do not try this at home.)
     Paula Loser, for www.roboticsushi.co.kr — which contains a collection of detailed drawings of the latest in sushi-making machines.
     Loren Coleman, who nominated his own site, www.lorencoleman.com — an introduction to the world of cryptozoology, the science of “hidden animals,” such as the abominable snowman of the Himalayas and Nessie, the alleged inhabitant of Scotland’s Loch Ness.
     Thanks for sharing, everyone!

 SEARCH ABCNEWS.com FOR MORE ON …
S U M M A R Y

Behavior, frog or human, is far from predictable

And the Contest Winners are …


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