Consciousness

[Alan V]

The brain stem sounds a lot more important than any other part of the brain.

Per Google, in addition to regulating conscious states the brainstem:

* "Is crucial for regulating many essential bodily functions -- it controls vital processes like breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure;"
* "Influences digestion, swallowing, and other involuntary bodily processes;"
* "Acts as a major pathway for sensory and motor information traveling between the brain and the spinal cord;"
* "Houses the nuclei for most of the cranial nerves, which control facial expressions, eye movements, hearing, taste, and other functions;"
* "Plays a role in movement and coordination, including posture and balance."

Similarly, the cerebellum is not considered a part of the conscious brain, yet it "plays a crucial role in coordinating movement, maintaining balance, and regulating muscle tone. It also contributes to motor learning, fine-tuning movements through practice. Recent research suggests the cerebellum's functions extend beyond motor control to include cognitive processes like language and possibly even emotional regulation."

When people talk about it taking 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill, they are largely talking about training the cerebellum.

So the brain controls a lot of automatic, unconscious, and habitual processes. Consciousness is just one of its functions.