title: Homing in on consciousness in the nervous system: An action-based synthesis.
abstract: What is the primary function of consciousness in the nervous system? The answer to this question remains enigmatic, not so much because of a lack of relevant data, but because of the lack of a conceptual framework with which to interpret the data. To this end, we have developed Passive Frame Theory, an internally coherent framework that, from an action-based perspective, synthesizes empirically supported hypotheses from diverse fields of investigation. The theory proposes that the primary function of consciousness is well-circumscribed, serving the somatic nervous system. For this system, consciousness serves as a frame that constrains and directs skeletal muscle output, thereby yielding adaptive behavior. The mechanism by which consciousness achieves this is more counterintuitive, passive, and "low level" than the kinds of functions that theorists have previously attributed to consciousness. Passive frame theory begins to illuminate (a) what consciousness contributes to nervous function, (b) how consciousness achieves this function, and (c) the neuroanatomical substrates of conscious processes. Our untraditional, action-based perspective focuses on olfaction instead of on vision and is descriptive (describing the products of nature as they evolved to be) rather than normative (construing processes in terms of how they should function). Passive frame theory begins to isolate the neuroanatomical, cognitive-mechanistic, and representational (e.g., conscious contents) processes associated with consciousness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology,San Francisco State University,San Francisco,CA 94132-4168;Department of Neurology,University of California,San Francisco,San Francisco,CA 94158.morsella@sfsu.eduhttp://online.sfsu.edu/morsella/people.html.
authors.forename: Ezequiel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Morsella
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology,Georgia Institute of Technology,Atlanta,GA 30318.cgodwin9@gatech.eduhttp://control.gatech.edu/people/graduate/cgodwin/.
authors.forename: Christine A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Godwin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology,University of Michigan,Ann Arbor,MI 48109-1043.tkjantz@umich.eduhttp://prod.lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/graduate-students/tkjantz.html.
authors.forename: Tiffany K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Jantz
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology,Mount Sinai Medical Center,New York,NY 10029-6574.stephen.krieger@mssm.eduhttp://www.mountsinai.org/profiles/stephen-krieger.
authors.forename: Stephen C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Krieger
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology,Department of Psychiatry, andDepartment of Physiology,University of California,San Francisco,San Francisco, CA, 94158.adam.gazzaley@ucsf.eduhttp://gazzaleylab.ucsf.edu/people-profiles/adam-gazzaley/.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gazzaley
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003243:Consciousness; D006801:Humans; D009445:Neuroanatomy
keywords: Consciousness; neural correlates of consciousness; subjective experience; unconscious processing; voluntary action