Behavior in Oblivion: The Neurobiology of Subliminal Priming
Brain Sciences November 27, 2012 Christianne Jacobs, Alexander T. Sack
Subliminal priming—behavioral changes caused by an unseen stimulus—is a form of unconscious visual processing. Theories of recurrent processing propose that consciousness arises from non-hierarchical feedback loops in the brain, while unconscious subliminal priming relies on the initial feedforward sweep of visual information. Evidence increasingly supports the necessity of recurrent connectivity for visual awareness, though whether global or local recurrence is required remains unclear. Recurrent processing alone is not sufficient for consciousness. The neural correlates of subliminal priming deserve more attention because understanding them can explain why people exhibit certain behaviors, even without awareness.