Image: Rinat Laor
People can process short sentences and solve equations before they're aware of the words and numbers in front of their eyes, finds new research that suggests we might not actually need full consciousness to perform rule-based tasks like reading and arithmetic.
In a series of experiments at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, more than 300 student participants were unconsciously exposed to words and equations through a research technique known as Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS). With this method, a static image appears in front of one eye while rapidly changing pictures flash in front of the other eye. The changing pictures dominate awareness at first, letting the still image register subliminally before popping into consciousness.
In the first part of the study, one eye was presented with a static phrase or sentence, which was "masked" by changing colorful shapes flashing in front of the other eye. The students were instructed to press a button as soon as they became aware of the words. It usually took about a second, but negative phrases like "human trafficking" and jarring sentences such as "I ironed the coffee" typically registered quicker than positive expressions and more coherent phrases such as "I ironed clothes," the study found.
The researchers say these results suggest that the sentences were fully read and comprehended subconsciously, and certain phrases broke out of suppression faster because they were more surprising.
In the second part of the study, the scientists examined how the unconscious brain processes math problems. Using the CFS technique again, the researchers subliminally exposed the participants to three-digit equations, such as "9 − 3 − 4," for two seconds or less. Then, the participants were shown a number (without CFS masking it) and told to say it out loud. The students were quicker to read aloud a number that was the right answer to the equation they had just subconsciously seen. For example, after being exposed to "9 − 3 − 4," they were quicker to pronounce "2" than "3." This suggests they subconsciously worked out the problem and had the answer on their lips.
Other recent studies have shown that humans might be able to unconsciously perform tasks that have typically been associated with consciousness, such as learning and forming intuitions. The new study adds complex, rule-based operations to that list.
Psychology researcher Ran Hassin, who was involved in the study, said the results suggest current theories about unconscious processes need to be revised.
"These revisions would bring us closer to solving one of the biggest scientific mysteries of the 21st century: What are the functions of human consciousness?"
The research was published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Add CommentAdds fuel to the idea that consciousness is an experience but is not the same thing as or responsible for free will. We are passengers in the bus and are aware of what is happening but have no control where the bus goes, but because the bus is going exactly where we want it to go we are under the delusion that we are in control of it. It seems that consciousness represents the highest level of integration of the brain. Recent studies of anesthetics suggest that unconsciousness is the result of a loss of integration between brain centres. But unconsciousness does not mean there is no integration. They should be able to fine tune these studies to determine roughly what is required to maintain consciousness. This could help with people locked in a vegetative state.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAgreed Robert.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisConsciousness is simply the ability improvise. It is a scale.
Insects at the bottom
animals middle
humans top
we had an evolutionary advance (which improved survival) that affected our brains.
Most evolution i put down to Have more, do more for less energy.
At some point our brain went though a phase of Have more, do more while the efficiency side worked overtime. Basically our brain system evolved over an extended period where food for the brain was plentiful i would wager. It is also the reason why our brains only run on a small amount of energy most of the time...like a power save function.
If we can tap the power function like say Einstein did im sure youd end up with lots of very smart people.
Of course Einstein read continuously, something todays generation doesnt.
You would be surprised. Many read-some think-most pass on analysis.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe brain is a very fine organ. Much surpassed by the piano. Accordions are of a chord.
Probably there's a mesh between the "unconcious" and the "subconscious". We all perceive with our senses things that we don't consciously notice or are aware of, they just were below a certain intensity or duration threshold to reach conscience, but it was shown from the experiences of "subliminal advertising" that they actually were perceived and do induce behavior effects; however, the Freudian "unconscious" is a totally different field, as things in the unconscious, mainly of an affective or instinctive nature, do not remain unnoticed because of not having sufficient intensity, but are actively repressed to enter conscience, as they would represent some kind of a conflict with the censor instance: the "superego" or breaking a rule, and the "unconscious" displaces, attaches and handles its contents in the same ways the content of dreams is built and handled. Everybody has subconscious things in their minds, but probably not everybody has an unconscious, perhaps psychopats don't have an unconscious at all, and the content and size of the unconscious may be heavily connected to childhood and sexual experiences, and also to cultural features of some ethnic, religious or geographic backgrounds.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's possible that wherever in the brain neuronal bodies and gray matter exists, some computing ability is there. Animals as small as Ladybugs do choose the place where they're going to hybernate according to how cold the coming winter season would be, and larger animals have been shown to perceive with some kind of forecasting things such as earthquakes and tsunamis. Our brain performa many tasks without us being aware how, to breath you don't need thinking "I'll raise the firing rate of that group of neurons, have them sending a signal to the movement related parts of cortex, have the signal send down the spinal chord, an trigger an acethycholine discharge in the respiratory muscles synapsis, and have these muscles contracting", you just think in it, and do it. In the old Greece myths, an hex was put to a person that had to consciously move all the breath system, if the person went asleep, he/she would have died of suffocation. Ondine was the name for this, if I remember it well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReminds me of that guy who is blind and can't consciously 'see' anything but he can navigate around objects having learned to rely on some subconscious part of the mind that does 'see'. So my father is 86 and extremely hard of hearing. Makes me wonder how much of his problem is related to the processing of the information and not all the result of physical damage. So does his subconscious hear? I think i'll try some experiments from behind his chair and see what's what.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you're blind, deaf and dumb, the only thing you can do unsconsciously, at least in the Who's oppinion, is becoming "The pinball wizard"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this6. rock johny wonders about the actual site where sensory input goes awry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn the case of blind individuals who have some ability to _see_ as they move around, the defect has to be somewhere in the visual signal processing. Eg: If he has no eyes he won't be able to see anything but if his visual circuitry is intact he may be able to process the input in his cerebellum rather than his cerebrum. Thus he may be able to point in the general direction of a bright light even though he is blind in almost every sense of the word.
Much of what we call intuition is this ability to divine in a limited way that information that has been received by the cerebellum and is not usually available to the cortex.
People who are regarded as having eyes in the back of their head because of their ability to sense danger or opportunity where others cannot are probably applying this ability.
If your father exhibits recruitment which is where he has difficulty hearing until the sound level exceeds a certain threshold but can then hear very well then the problem is likely neurological and not connected to structure of the inner ear. You can tell if this is happening by his responses to conversation. If he complains he can't hear what people are saying and then complains that they are yelling at him that is recruitment. His nervous system would be overcompensating by magnifying the received input to try and make sense of it. Once the sound level passes a certain point it sounds painfully loud.
If this is the case, sneaking up behind him and yelling boo may not be the best thing for a familial response.