University College London researchers have found the
first physiological evidence that invisible subliminal images do
attract the brain's attention on a subconscious level. The wider
implication for the study, published in Current Biology, is that
techniques such as subliminal advertising, now banned in the UK but
still legal in the USA, certainly do leave their mark on the brain.
Using fMRI, the study looked at whether an image you
aren't aware of -- but one that reaches the retina -- has an impact on
brain activity in the primary visual cortex, part of the occipital
lobe. Subjects' brains did respond to the object even when they were
not conscious of having seen it. Dr Bahador Bahrami, of the UCL
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and the UCL Department of
Psychology, said: "What's interesting here is that your brain does log
things that you aren't even aware of and can't ever become aware of. We
show that there is a brain response in the primary visual cortex to
subliminal images that attract our attention -- without us having the
impression of having seen anything. These findings point to the sort of
impact that subliminal advertising may have on the brain. What our
study doesn't address is whether this would then influence you to go
out and buy a product. I believe that it's likely that subliminal
advertising may affect our decisions -- but that is just speculation at
this point."
11:21:41 PM 
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