Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T09:40:17.403Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can skeletomotor action integration occur without consciousness? Evidence from unconscious action inhibition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2016

Alisabeth Ayars
Alisabeth Ayars*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85712. alisabetha@email.arizona.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Morsella et al. claim that consciousness functions to integrate incompatible skeletal muscle intentions. Their primary cases of conscious skeletomotor integration involve action suppression, such as holding one's breath underwater, which requires suppressing the urge to inhale. This indicates that the authors seem to think action inhibition counts as the relevant kind of integration. I suggest that there is reason to think this kind of inhibition can occur unconsciously via unconscious inhibitory mechanisms. Unconscious inhibition therefore potentially undermines the authors' thesis. If cases of unconscious inhibition are not instances of integration, then the authors should clarify exactly what counts as integration.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e169
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Eimer, M. & Schlaghecken, F. (2003) Response facilitation and inhibition in subliminal priming. Biological Psychology 64(1):7–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jaśkowski, P. & Przekoracka-Krawczyk, A. (2005) On the role of mask structure in subliminal priming. Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis 65(4):409–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schlaghecken, F., Bowman, H. & Eimer, M. (2006) Dissociating local and global levels of perceptuo-motor control in masked priming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 32(3):618–32.Google Scholar
Schlaghecken, F. & Eimer, M. (2006) Active masks and active inhibition: A comment on Lleras and Enns (2004) and on Verleger, Jaśkowski, Aydemir, van der Lubbe, and Groen (2004). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 135(3):484–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sumner, P., Nachev, P., Morris, P., Peters, A. M., Jackson, S. R., Kennard, C. & Husain, M. (2007) Human medial frontal cortex mediates unconscious inhibition of voluntary action. Neuron 54(5):697–711.Google Scholar
Tucker, M. & Ellis, R. (2004) Action priming by briefly presented objects. Acta Psychologica 116(2):185–203.Google Scholar