Eli5: why is it that when you start thinking about breathing or blinking you have to do it manually?

Question

I’ve also heard of something similar where if you focus on your tongue you feel like there isn’t a comfortable place for it in your mouth, is there an explanation for that too?

In: 21

Answer 1

If you were aware of everything being processed, you would be overwhelmed. Your retinas are full of blood vessels, have gaps in the vision and only have color receptors in the center, but you perceive the world as if it’s all in colour and being seen through a perfect camera. You aren’t aware of the processing involved.

If you stand up from your chair and pick up a ball, you’re consciously thinking about standing up and picking up the ball. You aren’t thinking about the thousands of muscle contractions, correcting for gravity, the processing required to not be a mess on the floor, your heart beat, your eye blinks, your bowels pushing food through, your liver…

Some functions it is necessary to take control of to ensure you don’t go blind, don’t drown etc. You can blink at will but you will find that you can’t keep your eyes open indefinitely, they will blink without your control. You can hold your breath at will, but eventually after starving yourself of oxygen you will end up gasping involuntarily.

“You” can seemingly take conscious executive control of certain bodily functions, but don’t be fooled into thinking your body and mind aren’t a load of independent and interdependent systems. Your consciousness emerges from these systems, it’s not a case of a single conscious you making decisions and driving your body around like a car.

There isn’t really a single “you” either. You will have had a conversation with yourself, should you have another cookie, no you shouldn’t, yes you should. Which one is you? If you scan the brain of someone making a decision to do something, the conscious brain will perceive thinking about it and making the decision, but the brain scan will show that the decision had already been made a second or two earlier by the unconscious brain.

Which begs the question, what’s the purpose of consciousness? Why do we need the illusion of control?