You may think you made a decision to read this article, but did you, really? What we consider to be making a decision might in fact be a different kind of brain interaction between what we perceive, and the actions we take in response – less of a step-by-step linear process, and more of a circular feedback loop.In a new study published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, neuroscientist Tom James from Indiana University challenges the conventional 'sense-think-act' view of how the brain makes decisions, also known as the 'sandwich model'.The core idea is that our feeling of deliberation (which pizza topping to have, for example) and the physical choice itself (opting for ham and pineapple) are actually happening together, triggered by the same neural activity in the brain.In other words, there's no middle step between sense and act, just the illusion of one, the argument goes."Explaining that the brain works by way of a central controller suggests that you haven't figured out how the brain works, because you've just put a person inside your brain," says James."That person inside your brain would need another person inside its brain, which would need a person inside its brain and so on, in an infinite regress. So the problem is never solved. It's just passed on."The idea of decision making may be an illusion, the study argues. (James, J. Cogn. Neurosci., 2026)There are several layers to the hypothesis put forward by James. One is that while sensory and motor mechanisms are connected to physical, biological machinery – like eyes to see an apple and a hand to grab it – decision-making doesn't have a physical link.So while we might have the sense of making decisions, and decisions are actually being made, the neuroscience behind them needs a rethink."The leap, I think, is to say that the brain works by having decision-making or control processes," says James. "It produces behavior that is well described in that way.""But it doesn't need a process that does that to make it look that way."