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Study links consciousness with muscles

Study shows performance affects perception
A U.S. psychologist says the performance of people trying to accomplish a physical task can often affect their perception of the task after they are finished. Purdue University Assistant Professor Jessica Witt and doctoral student Travis Dorsch said they studied the visual perceptions of 23 non-football athletes who attempted to kick field goals from the center of a football field at the 10-yard line. Those who made successful kicks "judged the goal posts to be farther apart and the crossbar lower to the ground," Witt reported. Participants who kicked the ball too wide judged the goal to be narrower, while those kicking the ball too short judged the goal to be taller. "People trying to kick field goals will see a much smaller goal after unsuccessful attempts," said Witt. "There are still a number of questions to answer about this work, including what role perception plays for professional athletes who practice the sport more than the average person." The study appears in the journal Perception.
by Staff Writers
 San Francisco (UPI) Oct 6, 2009
U.S. psychologists say they've determined the primary role of consciousness is to resolve competing demands on skeletal muscles.

The researchers, led by San Francisco State University Assistant Professor Ezequiel Morsella, said they asked study participants to report changes in their awareness, including the feeling they were about to make a mistake, while they were preparing to perform simple tasks.

When asked to prepare to perform incompatible actions, such as moving left and right at the same time, participants reported much stronger changes in awareness than when they prepared to perform compatible actions. The scientists said they discovered preparing for action or for resolving conflicting demands involving skeletal muscles evoked much stronger awareness than preparations for events not involving skeletal muscles.

The researchers say their findings support the theory that the primary role of consciousness is to resolve competing demands on skeletal muscle and are consistent with the theoretical framework that "thinking is for doing."

"Our findings add to the growing body of evidence that when you prepare to perform two competing actions, you prime the same areas of the brain associated with carrying out that same action," Morsella said.

The study is reported in the journal Emotion.

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