Hip
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ME/CFS patients sometimes have days when their cognitive dysfunction (aka: clouding of consciousness or brain fog) substantially abates. On the rare occasions when I have a day of greatly reduced brain fog, I notice that I become more able to perform ordinary household tasks unconsciously, ie, on "automatic".
Whereas when my brain fog is more severe, I find I tend to approach even simple routine tasks with conscious attention (or what remains of my conscious attention). When brain fog is present, of necessity I perform the tasks with as much conscious attention as I can muster in the haze of brain fog; this is because with brain fog, I notice that it is harder for me to perform tasks in an automatic and unconscious way.
Could it be that the brain fog of ME/CFS impairs unconscious mental functioning more than conscious functioning?
We are all aware that humans are able to perform tasks both consciously and unconsciously.
For example, experienced drivers will usually navigate through the traffic unconsciously, by using unconscious cognition and unconscious physical responses. That is to say, normal healthy people usually drive on "automatic", often focusing their conscious attention on something else while driving (such as planing in their mind what to do later in the evening). Only if a hairy situation crops up while driving do drivers instantly bring their full conscious attention to bear on the road.
And the same applies to simple routine tasks in the home, like cooking, cleaning, brushing your teeth, etc: healthy people will invariably perform these tasks using unconscious mental processes, while thinking about something else more interesting, or while talking to others. Most of the routine tasks humans do each day are delegated to the unconscious to fulfill.
Could it be that brain fog significantly hampers unconscious cognition, such that ME/CFS patients are then forced to laboriously perform tasks using conscious cognition?
If so, this may explain why even simple tasks can often seem tiring and laborious to ME/CFS patients, because we have to consciously think through every step of the way, rather than delegating the task to our unconscious mind to perform effortlessly and automatically, while our conscious mind is focussed on more interesting or important matters.
On the very occasional days where my brain fog does transiently improve, I notice that I start performing routine tasks in a more effortless and unconscious way, which feels much more efficient, as it releases my conscious mind to simultaneously work on more interesting things (or just allows me to daydream on something nice, while my unconscious performs the humdrum routine task automatically for me).
So I am wondering whether in the brain fog of ME/CFS, there might be a specific brain dysfunction that impedes unconscious cognition, more than it does conscious cognition?
Or alternatively, maybe it is just the impairments of working memory, task switching and divided attention functioning found in ME/CFS that force patients to focus consciously and intently even on simple mundane tasks, just in order to be able to do the task (because otherwise the poor memory may make you forget what you were doing). Maybe unconscious cognition does not work very well when your memory and task switching is impaired.
This impairment of unconscious cognition that I suggest might be occurring in ME/CFS could explain the general feeling I get with ME/CFS, which is that this disease imprisons or straightjackets your mind in a way that makes your world seems narrow and limited. Perhaps this feeling of mental limitation comes from ME/CFS patients' cognition being only capable of focusing on one consciously performed task at a time; whereas healthy people are able to focus on multiple activities at once, using both conscious and unconscious cognition, and so experience a more airy cognitive landscape of greater dimension.
I know on those occasional days when my brain fog substantially improves, I can walk into a room while thinking about some matter, and unconsciously (subliminally) observe that that the room is a bit untidy and that items need to be put back into their cupboards or draws, and I will unconsciously start clearing up the mess, while still engaged in my thought processes on other matters. In this way, the healthy brain is always multidimensional and multitasking in its functioning.
But when my brain fog is significant, I will not even notice that there is a mess, let alone be able to clear up the mess in this automatic and unconscious way while thinking about something else.
What parts of the brain are involved unconscious cognition and unconscious motor control?
This paper says that the basal ganglia and thalamus are involved. The basal ganglia is a brain area found to be working under par in ME/CFS.
And this article says:
If ME/CFS brain fog involves not just problems in conscious cognition, but also an impairment of unconscious cognition and unconscious motor action, this could help explain why brain fog is such an all-encompassing debilitating condition.
Whereas when my brain fog is more severe, I find I tend to approach even simple routine tasks with conscious attention (or what remains of my conscious attention). When brain fog is present, of necessity I perform the tasks with as much conscious attention as I can muster in the haze of brain fog; this is because with brain fog, I notice that it is harder for me to perform tasks in an automatic and unconscious way.
Could it be that the brain fog of ME/CFS impairs unconscious mental functioning more than conscious functioning?
We are all aware that humans are able to perform tasks both consciously and unconsciously.
For example, experienced drivers will usually navigate through the traffic unconsciously, by using unconscious cognition and unconscious physical responses. That is to say, normal healthy people usually drive on "automatic", often focusing their conscious attention on something else while driving (such as planing in their mind what to do later in the evening). Only if a hairy situation crops up while driving do drivers instantly bring their full conscious attention to bear on the road.
And the same applies to simple routine tasks in the home, like cooking, cleaning, brushing your teeth, etc: healthy people will invariably perform these tasks using unconscious mental processes, while thinking about something else more interesting, or while talking to others. Most of the routine tasks humans do each day are delegated to the unconscious to fulfill.
Could it be that brain fog significantly hampers unconscious cognition, such that ME/CFS patients are then forced to laboriously perform tasks using conscious cognition?
If so, this may explain why even simple tasks can often seem tiring and laborious to ME/CFS patients, because we have to consciously think through every step of the way, rather than delegating the task to our unconscious mind to perform effortlessly and automatically, while our conscious mind is focussed on more interesting or important matters.
On the very occasional days where my brain fog does transiently improve, I notice that I start performing routine tasks in a more effortless and unconscious way, which feels much more efficient, as it releases my conscious mind to simultaneously work on more interesting things (or just allows me to daydream on something nice, while my unconscious performs the humdrum routine task automatically for me).
So I am wondering whether in the brain fog of ME/CFS, there might be a specific brain dysfunction that impedes unconscious cognition, more than it does conscious cognition?
Or alternatively, maybe it is just the impairments of working memory, task switching and divided attention functioning found in ME/CFS that force patients to focus consciously and intently even on simple mundane tasks, just in order to be able to do the task (because otherwise the poor memory may make you forget what you were doing). Maybe unconscious cognition does not work very well when your memory and task switching is impaired.
This impairment of unconscious cognition that I suggest might be occurring in ME/CFS could explain the general feeling I get with ME/CFS, which is that this disease imprisons or straightjackets your mind in a way that makes your world seems narrow and limited. Perhaps this feeling of mental limitation comes from ME/CFS patients' cognition being only capable of focusing on one consciously performed task at a time; whereas healthy people are able to focus on multiple activities at once, using both conscious and unconscious cognition, and so experience a more airy cognitive landscape of greater dimension.
I know on those occasional days when my brain fog substantially improves, I can walk into a room while thinking about some matter, and unconsciously (subliminally) observe that that the room is a bit untidy and that items need to be put back into their cupboards or draws, and I will unconsciously start clearing up the mess, while still engaged in my thought processes on other matters. In this way, the healthy brain is always multidimensional and multitasking in its functioning.
But when my brain fog is significant, I will not even notice that there is a mess, let alone be able to clear up the mess in this automatic and unconscious way while thinking about something else.
What parts of the brain are involved unconscious cognition and unconscious motor control?
This paper says that the basal ganglia and thalamus are involved. The basal ganglia is a brain area found to be working under par in ME/CFS.
And this article says:
If ME/CFS brain fog involves not just problems in conscious cognition, but also an impairment of unconscious cognition and unconscious motor action, this could help explain why brain fog is such an all-encompassing debilitating condition.
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