25 Jun Consciousness May Arise Unconsciously

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ezequiel Morsella, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Neuroscience
Department of Psychology San Francisco State University
Assistant Adjunct Professor Department of Neurology
University of California, San Francisco
Boardmember, Scientific Advisory Board
Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO), Buenos Aires

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Dr. Morsella: The theoretical framework, Passive Frame Theory, builds on an action-based, theoretical project that first appeared in Psychological Review, in 2015.

The framework is a synthesis of hypotheses from disparate fields. It reveals that consciousness serves as a frame that constrains and directs skeletal muscle output, thereby yielding adaptive behavior.  From this unique, action-based perspective, consciousness is in the service of the somatic nervous system. How consciousness achieves this is more counterintuitive, ‘low level,’ and passive than the kinds of functions that theorists have attributed to consciousness.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Morsella: The framework may shed light on why many conscious thoughts, urges, and inclinations arise even though they are undesired by the actor.  For instance, the mechanism that generates an urge that is experienced consciously does not “know,”  in a sense, that the urge is not adaptive in the current context.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Morsella: The research also suggests that, to learn more about the neural correlates
of conscious processing, investigators should focus on the long neglected olfactory system. More specifically, the mechanisms that link conscious olfactory processing to skeletomotor control (e.g., in “voluntary” action) might reveal a great deal about the neural correlates of conscious processing.

Citation:

Ezequiel Morsella, Christine A. Godwin, Tiffany K. Jantz, Stephen C. Krieger, Adam Gazzaley. Homing in on Consciousness in the Nervous System: An Action-Based Synthesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2015; 1 DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X15000643

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Ezequiel Morsella, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neuroscience, & Department of Psychology San Francisco State Uni (2015). Consciousness May Arise Unconsciously 

Last Updated on June 25, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD