Consciousness resolves competing muscle demands, study finds
October 1, 2009 | Source: KurzweilAI
The primary roles of consciousness are to bring together competing demands on skeletal muscle and decide which action “wins” and is carried out, and to allow individuals to adapt their actions in the future, according to San Francisco State University Assistant Professor of Psychology Ezequiel Morsella, lead author of a new study.
The study finds that we are only aware of competing actions that involve skeletal muscles that voluntarily move parts of the body, the bicep for example, rather than the muscles in the digestive tract or the iris of the eye.
“The Essence of Conscious Conflict: Subjective Effects of Sustaining Incompatible Intentions” is published in the October 2009 issue of the journal Emotion.