| >My guess for a real cause of this effect would be neurotransmitter depletion in key neurons involved in self-discipline. Thanks for your detailed refutation of this article. I pinboard'd the article, then read your comment, and un-pinboard'd it. Your guess for the real mechanism is a depletable neurotransmitter. It brings up the matter of discipline - is it a consumable resource, or a buildable resource? I think traditionally most people think of discipline/self-control being a limited resource. In the course of my own life, trying to manage habits( example, strength training, eating healthily) I find the less I have to rely on at-the-moment willpower, and more on habit, the more adherence I demonstrate. That leads me to think that discipline is a (precious) limited resource. On the other hand, was listening to a Jocko Willink podcast episode this weekend, and he claims that exercising discipline leads to further capacity for more discipline. I don't totally reject his idea, but it implies there isn't a limited neurotransmitter, but more some kind of positive feedback loop. Truth is probably some kind of murky combination I suppose. |
In the same way that "You" are not a monolithic entity, "You" don't pay attention to everything - take the old "think about your breathing" troll, which causes a redirection of attention to an otherwise autonomous function.
In this world, the role of "willpower" is in habit formation - doing something routinely enough that you train 'yourself' to do it automatically. So exercising this ability can help you train yourself to do it more easily - you're meta-training yourself to train yourself.
But the active exercise of will is by no means energetically free, and that's the origin of the original paper's hypothesis. I'd guess that this exercise of will is not especially amenable to alteration beyond gross physical trauma, but I don't think it has much to do with blood glucose.