So here’s a few different scenarios…
Soldiers are taught to obey without question. So there’s a trained response to execute the instruction.
Addicts can’t help themselves: see drugs/booze/sex/food /whatever, and they just crave it and respond.
Athletes have overcome the ups and down with sheer discipline, and drive themselves onwards.
The odd person here and there has a brilliant insight, connects the dots, sees an opportunity for something and takes action.
For many others… It’s just “could be”… Unactioned thoughts, ideas, and desires.
ELI5: What’s going on in that moment? Physiologically? Mentally? Emotionally?
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The neuron, in the most simple model, would be both analog and digital. Dendrites to axon hillock is anaglog and axon hillock to axon terminal is digital.
Imagine a light switch that goes off if it hears a loud enough noise. Until the noise threshold is reached, the light switch doesn’t do anything. The human brain works in a similar way. The noise in this case will be neurotransmitters. Once enough of this is gathered, the nueron will pass this message to the next neuron. This is one of the ways the brain communicates. With respect to your question, a drug addict an athlete are all doing this. Training how much “noise” is needed to move the message along.
Please note that this explanation is an oversimplification. Doesn’t take into account substance abuse and its potential. Most importantly, there will be a huge debate about if free will exists or not.