Subliminal words durably affect neuronal activity.
Unconscious mental representations elicited by subliminal stimuli are marked by their fleeting lifetimes, usually below 1 s. Can such evanescent subliminal stimuli, nevertheless, lead to long-lasting learning? To date, evidence suggesting a long-term influence of briefly perceived stimuli on behaviour or brain activity is scarce and questionable. In this study, we used intracranial recordings to provide the first direct demonstration that unconsciously perceived subliminal words could exert long-lasting effects on neuronal signals. When repeating subliminal words over long interstimulus intervals, we observed electrophysiological repetition effects. These unconscious repetition effects suggest that the single presentation of a masked word can durably affect neural architecture.
Gaillard
Raphaël
R
AP-HP, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital & University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.
Cohen
Laurent
L
Adam
Claude
C
Clemenceau
Stéphane
S
Hasboun
Dominique
D
Baulac
Michel
M
Willer
Jean-Claude
JC
Dehaene
Stanislas
S
Naccache
Lionel
L
D000328:Adult; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D004594:Electrophysiology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000503:physiopathology; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013360:Subliminal Stimulation