Control Consciousness
Topics in Cognitive Science March 8, 2010 DOI: 10.1111/j.1756-8765.2010.01084.x (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 13 |
| Key points | Argues that control consciousness is not exhausted by sensory elements and must include direct contributions from nonsensory motor elements, proposing that its neural basis is recurrent activation in intermediate levels of the motor hierarchy. |
Abstract
Control consciousness is the awareness or experience of seeming to be in control of one's actions. One view, which I will be arguing against in the present paper, is that control consciousness is a form of sensory consciousness. In such a view, control consciousness is exhausted by sensory elements such as tactile and proprioceptive information. An opposing view, which I will be arguing for, is that sensory elements cannot be the whole story and must be supplemented by direct contributions of nonsensory, motor elements. More specifically, I will be arguing for the view that the neural basis of control consciousness is constituted by states of recurrent activation in relatively intermediate levels of the motor hierarchy.