Article
Action-Based Synthesis of Parental Brain Consciousness
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
(2016)
Abstract
Parenting consciousness, in line with passive frame theory, may be considered inseparable from action. With combined brain-imaging and cognitive-behavioral analyses, we are in the early phases of understanding how parental brain circuits regulate parental thoughts and behavior. Furthermore, work on parental consciousness confirms the importance of motor outputs and outlines related circuits that inform consciousness across generations., AbstractWhat 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.
Keywords
- consciousness,
- neural correlates of consciousness,
- subjective experience,
- unconscious processing,
- voluntary action
Disciplines
Publication Date
January 1, 2016
DOI
10.1017/S0140525X15002277
Citation Information
James E. Swain, Ilinca Caluser, Zainab Mahmood, Madalyn Meldrim, et al.. "Action-Based Synthesis of Parental Brain Consciousness" Behavioral and Brain Sciences Vol. 39 Iss. e197 (2016) p. 42 - 43 ISSN: 1469-1825 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/diana-morelen/11/