WIll Power

What process in the brain causes will power?

The 1st thing to consider should be, what “will power” means. My interpretation of the common meaning behind this term would be basically; the ability to intentionally make a choice after consideration, despite the urge to do otherwise. A technical definition that I just googled; “control exerted to do something or restrain impulses.” 

The aspect of exerting control, or intentionally sticking to a choice made, seems likely to involve mental focus and awareness to persist in accomplishing which was mentally decided on. The mental function for this aspect seems it requires more detailed thought and analysis to decide upon an intended goal. The 2nd aspect of impulses or urges, which are being restrained or counteracted, describe what seems to involve more basic and generalized mind functions, which someone does not intentionally decide upon.

The 1st aspect seems to basically be the function of conscious focus and awareness, both in the process of making a decision, and in exerting control to follow that decision. If the decision or action which an individual is focusing on, requires fighting urges, then the process likely involves accessing memories of reasons of cause and effect for why to refrain from the impulses. Without conscious thought of reasons to avoid the impulses, the person would default to following the impulse. It could be argued that an individual can subconsciously exert control, but doing this seems it wouldn't really be restraining impulses, but rather following an alternate impulse.

This 2nd aspect of impulses would be caused by either instinct or subconscious, since they occur without a decision or intent. I described more of the differences of function between instinct, subconscious, and conscious thought, in a post from 2+ yrs ago; Plane’s of Brains. Basically, if the impulse is genetic, then it would be instinct, whereas if the impulse has developed from experiences, causing positive or negative reinforcement to be triggered by similar factors as saved in memory, then it would be a subconscious reaction. 

The next thing to consider is what causes will power to be more effective? If the ability for someone to control their actions, is by being more consciously aware of reasoning, then it seems being more persistently conscious, should cause more will power. I explained more of this process, in a post from about 15 months ago; Conscious Control. Everyone seems to use both subconscious and conscious thought regularly, and some have tendencies to use 1 mind function more than the other (as I estimated in my last post; Conscious Use Variance). The cause of someone having the ability to use more conscious focus, seems to be genetics guided by experiences and information learned. 

Besides genetics, some information could be key for the ability to develop conscious control. Concepts that are general, yet applicable enough to be used in most scenarios involving refraining from impulses, can be saved in memory as a root. If it is used enough to reinforce the neural pathway, conscious control can be improved by concepts such as; Will Power.