Nonconscious Processing Research Articles

Cognition in Patients with Spinocerebellar Ataxia 1 (SCA1) and 2 (SCA2): A Neurophysiological and Neuropsychological Approach.

Background/Objectives: Cognitive impairment in spinocerebellar ataxia patients has been reported since the early-disease stage. We aimed to assess cognitive differences in SCA1 and SCA2 patients. Methods: We performed neuropsychological (NPS) and neurophysiological (auditory event-related potentials, aERPs) assessments in 16 SCA1 and 18 SCA2 consecutive patients. Furthermore, clinical information (age at onset, disease duration, motor disability) was collected. Results: NPS tests yielded scores in the normal range in both groups but with lower scores in the Frontal Assessment Battery (p < 0.05) and Visual Analogue Test for Anosognosia for motor impairment (p < 0.05) in SCA1, and the Trail Making Test (p < 0.01), Raven's progressive matrices (p < 0.01), Stroop (p < 0.05), and emotion attribution tests (p < 0.05) in SCA2. aERPs showed lower N100 amplitude (p < 0.01) and prolonged N200 latency (p < 0.01) in SCA1 compared with SCA2. Clinically, SCA2 had more severe motor disability than SCA1 in the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia Scale. Conclusions: SCA2 showed more significant difficulties in attentional, visuospatial, and emotional function, and greater motor impairment. In contrast, SCA1 showed less cognitive flexibility/phasic ability, probably affected by a more severe degree of dysarthria. The same group revealed less neural activity during nonconscious attentional processing (N100-N200 data), suggesting greater involvement of sensory pathways in discriminating auditory stimuli. NFS did not correlate with NPS findings, implying an independent relationship. However, the specific role of the cerebellum and cerebellar symptoms in NPS test results deserves more focus.

Conceptualizing sustainable consumption priming: A scoping review

AbstractWhile many psychological interventions encourage sustainable consumption by altering attitudes, these modified attitudes often do not result in sustainable choices leading to the need to test alternative interventions to facilitate sustainable consumption, such as priming. Priming uses stimuli that trigger nonconscious processing that influences decisions. Despite its popularity, studies that employ priming strategies in sustainable consumption research are widely dispersed across several conceptual domains. This article unpacks and summarizes different approaches to priming sustainable behavior by delineating theoretical and methodological perspectives in various contexts across diverse consumer characteristics. The method employed is a scoping review of 74 articles published over 23 years (2000–2022). The resulting review (1) provides an overview of priming in sustainable consumption, (2) highlights knowledge gaps, (3) identifies knowledge clusters, and (4) proposes a research agenda for future investigations. Primarily, this paper provides an integrated map that deconstructs how researchers have explored priming interventions to promote sustainable consumption and to enable the best, or at least, better practice.

Associative learning, priming, and the fostering of adaptive flexibility

ABSTRACT Therapies, including those incorporating clinical hypnosis, occur in the context of consciously mediated interpersonal interactions. While the presence of the non-conscious and its content is often acknowledged, how non-conscious content is accessed and utilized in the training curricula to which clinical hypnosis students are exposed is under-emphasized. This article explores two phenomena – priming and the innate tendency of the human brain to engage in associative learning – that, when incorporated into the interpersonal process that constitutes clinical hypnosis, could expand and enrich outcomes for clients. The processes by which non-conscious processing shapes conscious experience, the role of the social environment in prioritizing and predisposing certain content that later makes its way into consciousness, and examples of how that content can be used to enhance clients’ adaptive flexibility are discussed.

Non-Conscious Affective Processing in Asset Managers during Financial Decisions: A Neurobiological Perspective

In the world of finance, considerable attention is given to improving machine learning techniques to predict the future of stock markets. However, for obvious reasons, this turns out to be an unsolvable mission, most likely because the real world is not driven by algorithms but by human beings. In response to this, the present study has its focus on raw affective responses in actual asset managers during their decision making regarding controlled financial scenarios. Nineteen asset managers were invited and asked to make sell/buy decisions related to visual presentations of three different price developments of different assets. The three scenarios were “crash”, “stable” and “gain”. Parallel to their decision making, startle reflex modulation (SRM) was used to measure non-conscious affective responses without demanding any respective explicit responses (no conscious language processing involved). Interestingly, two further factors were introduced. First, all participants had to make their decisions once while being informed that 0% prior investments (low exposure) have been made into the presented assets, and once being informed that a large investment consisting of 25% of ones’ overall portfolio has been made prior to making the decision (high exposure). Second, the factor experience was included dividing all participants into two groups, one with low experience and the other with high experience. First, across both these extra factors, it was found that “crash” scenarios resulted in the most negative affective responses. The most positive affective responses were found for “gain” scenarios, while the “stable” condition was in between. Interestingly, the factor of prior investment (i.e., exposure) had an effect. Non-conscious affective responses during decision making related to the “stable” condition varied as a function of “exposure”. In the low exposure condition, affective responses to decision making during the “stable” scenario were most negative, even more negative than in “crash” scenarios. The factor experience also had an effect, but due to the small sample size, no significant interaction occurred. However, t-tests revealed the same significant effects in the experienced group as found in the 0% prior investment condition. To our knowledge, this is the first empirical investigation measuring non-conscious affective responses during decision making in the context of asset management. Thus, this study might form an interesting basis for new strategies to explore non-conscious human brain functions instead of inventing new algorithms to make asset management more successful.

Decoding neural patterns for the processing of fearful faces under different visual awareness conditions: A multivariate pattern analysis.

Previous studies have provided mixed findings regarding the nonconscious processing of fearful faces. Here, we used multivariate pattern analysis on electroencephalography data from three backward masking experiments to examine the processing of fearful faces under different visual awareness conditions. Three groups of participants were shown pairs of face images presented very briefly (for 16 ms) or for sufficiently long (for 266 ms), and completed tasks where the faces were either relevant to the experimental task (Experiment 1) or not (Experiments 2 and 3). Three main decoding analyses were performed. First, in the visual awareness decoding, the visibility of the faces, and hence participants' awareness of them, was maximally decodable in three time windows: 158-168 ms, 235-260 ms and 400-600 ms where the earlier neural patterns were generalized to the later stage activity. Second, we found that the spatial location of a fearful face in the face pairs was decodable, however only when the faces were consciously seen and task-relevant. Finally, we successfully decoded distinct neural patterns associated with the fearful-face-present conditions, compared to the fearful-face-absent conditions, and these patterns were decodable during both short and long presentations of the faces. Together, our results suggest that, while the processing of the spatial location of fearful faces requires awareness and task-relevancy, the mere presence of fearful faces can be processed even when visual awareness is highly restricted.

An ERP measure of non-conscious memory reveals dissociable implicit processes in human recognition using an open-source automated analytic pipeline.

Non-conscious processing of human memory has traditionally been difficult to objectively measure and thus understand. A prior study on a group of hippocampal amnesia (N = 3) patients and healthy controls (N = 6) used a novel procedure for capturing neural correlates of implicit memory using event-related potentials (ERPs): old and new items were equated for varying levels of memory awareness, with ERP differences observed from 400 to 800 ms in bilateral parietal regions that were hippocampal-dependent. The current investigation sought to address the limitations of that study by increasing the sample of healthy subjects (N = 54), applying new controls for construct validity, and developing an improved, open-source tool for automated analysis of the procedure used for equating levels of memory awareness. Results faithfully reproduced prior ERP findings of parietal effects that a series of systematic control analyses validated were not contributed to nor contaminated by explicit memory. Implicit memory effects extended from 600 to 1000 ms, localized to right parietal sites. These ERP effects were found to be behaviorally relevant and specific in predicting implicit memory response times, and were topographically dissociable from other traditional ERP measures of implicit memory (miss vs. correct rejections) that instead occurred in left parietal regions. Results suggest first that equating for reported awareness of memory strength is a valid, powerful new method for revealing neural correlates of non-conscious human memory, and second, behavioral correlations suggest that these implicit effects reflect a pure form of priming, whereas misses represent fluency leading to the subjective experience of familiarity.

Attentional capture by fearful faces requires consciousness and is modulated by task-relevancy: A dot-probe EEG study.

In the current EEG study, we used a dot-probe task in conjunction with backward masking to examine the neural activity underlying awareness and spatial processing of fearful faces and the neural processes for subsequent cued spatial targets. We presented face images under different viewing conditions (subliminal and supraliminal) and manipulated the relation between a fearful face in the pair and a subsequent target. Our mass univariate analysis showed that fearful faces elicit the N2-posterior-contralateral, indexing spatial attention capture, only when they are presented supraliminally. Consistent with this, the multivariate pattern analysis revealed a successful decoding of the location of the fearful face only in the supraliminal viewing condition. Additionally, the spatial attention capture by fearful faces modulated the processing of subsequent lateralised targets that were spatially congruent with the fearful face, in both al and electrophysiological data. There was no evidence for nonconscious processing of the fearful faces in the current paradigm. We conclude that spatial attentional capture by fearful faces requires visual awareness and it is modulated by top-down task demands.

Influences of Music Reading on Auditory Chord Discrimination: A Novel Test Bed for Nonconscious Processing of Irrelevant Prime Meaning

Abstract The question whether nonconscious processing could involve higher-level, semantic representations is of broad interest. Here, we demonstrate semantic processing of task-relevant and task-irrelevant features of nonconscious primes within a novel, empirical test bed. In two experiments, musicians were visually primed with musical note triads varying in mode (i.e., major vs minor) and position (i.e., the arrangement of notes within a triad). The task required to discriminate only the mode in the following auditory target chord. In two experimental blocks, primes were either consciously visible or masked, respectively. Response times for auditory discrimination of the modes (relevant dimension) of heard triads were measured. Crucially, the targets also varied with respect to mode and position, creating different grades of congruency with the visual primes. Based on the Theory of Event Coding, we expected and found interactions between relevant and irrelevant semantic characteristics of masked primes, illustrating that even irrelevant prime meaning was processed. Moreover, our results indicated that both task-relevant and task-irrelevant prime characteristics are processed in nonconscious conditions only, and that practice in ignoring uninformative conscious primes can be transferred to a subsequent block. In conclusion, this study demonstrates cross-modal, automatic semantic processing using a novel approach to study such effects.

Effects of spatially filtered fearful faces and awareness on amygdala activity in adults with autism spectrum disorder: A magnetoencephalography study

BackgroundThe amygdala is pivotal in emotional face processing. Spatial frequencies (SFs) of visual images are divided and processed via two visual pathways: low spatial frequency (LSF) information is conveyed by the magnocellular pathway, while the parvocellular pathway carries high spatial frequency information. We hypothesized that altered amygdala activity might underlie atypical social communication caused by changes in both conscious and non-conscious emotional face processing in the brain in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). MethodEighteen adults with ASD and 18 typically developing (TD) peers participated in this study. Spatially filtered fearful- and neutral-expression faces and object stimuli were presented under supraliminal or subliminal conditions, and neuromagnetic responses in the amygdala were measured using 306-channel whole-head magnetoencephalography. ResultsThe latency of the evoked responses at approximately 200 ms to unfiltered neutral face stimuli and object stimuli in the ASD group was shorter than that in the TD group in the unaware condition. Regarding emotional face processing, the evoked responses in the ASD group were larger than those in the TD group under the aware condition. The later positive shift during 200–500 ms (ARV) was larger than that in the TD group, regardless of awareness. Moreover, ARV to HSF face stimuli was larger than that to the other spatial filtered face stimuli in the aware condition. ConclusionRegardless of awareness, ARV might reflect atypical face information processing in the ASD brain.

Non-conscious processing of fear faces: a function of the implicit self-concept of anxiety

BackgroundTrait anxiety refers to a stable tendency to experience fears and worries across many situations. High trait anxiety is a vulnerability factor for the development of psychopathologies. Self-reported trait anxiety appears to be associated with an automatic processing advantage for threat-related information. Self-report measures assess aspects of the explicit self-concept of anxiety. Indirect measures can tap into the implicit self-concept of anxiety.MethodsWe examined automatic brain responsiveness to non-conscious threat as a function of trait anxiety using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Besides a self-report instrument, we administered the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to assess anxiety. We used a gender-decision paradigm presenting brief (17 ms) and backward-masked facial expressions depicting disgust and fear.ResultsExplicit trait anxiety was not associated with brain responsiveness to non-conscious threat. However, a relation of the implicit self-concept of anxiety with masked fear processing in the thalamus, precentral gyrus, and lateral prefrontal cortex was observed.ConclusionsWe provide evidence that a measure of the implicit self-concept of anxiety is a valuable predictor of automatic neural responses to threat in cortical and subcortical areas. Hence, implicit anxiety measures could be a useful addition to explicit instruments. Our data support the notion that the thalamus may constitute an important neural substrate in biased non-conscious processing in anxiety.

Asynchronous neural oscillations associated with subliminal affective face priming in autism spectrum disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by social communicative disturbance. Social communication requires rapid processing and accurate cognition regarding others' emotional expressions. Previous electrophysiological studies have attempted to elucidate the processes underlying atypical face-specific N170 responses to emotional faces in ASD. The present study explored subliminal affective priming effects (SAPEs) on the N170 response and time-frequency analysis of intertrial phase coherence (ITPC) for the N170 in ASD. Fifteen participants [seven participants with ASD and eight typically developing (TD) controls] were recruited for the experiment. Event-related potentials were recorded with a 128-channel electroencephalography device while participants performed an emotional face judgment task. The results revealed enhanced N170 amplitude for supraliminal target-face stimuli when they were preceded by subliminal fearful-face stimuli, in both the ASD and TD groups. Interestingly, TD participants exhibited higher alpha-ITPC in the subliminal fearful-face priming condition in the right face-specific area in the N170 time window. In contrast, there were no significant differences in ITPC in any frequency bands between the subliminal fearful and neutral priming conditions in the ASD group. Asynchronous phase-locking neural activities in the face-specific area may underlie impaired nonconscious face processing in ASD, despite the presence of common features of SAPEs for the N170 component in both the ASD and TD groups.

Accurately measuring nonconscious processing using a generative Bayesian framework.

Accurately measuring nonconscious processing using a generative Bayesian framework.

Sensitivity vs. awareness curve: A novel model-based analysis to uncover the processes underlying nonconscious perception.

In this study, we present a novel model-based analysis of the association between awareness and perceptual processing based on a multidimensional version of signal detection theory (general recognition theory, or GRT). The analysis fits a GRT model to behavioral data and uses the estimated model to construct a sensitivity versus awareness (SvA) curve, representing sensitivity in the discrimination task at each value of relative likelihood of awareness. This approach treats awareness as a continuum rather than a dichotomy, but also provides an objective benchmark for low likelihood of awareness. In two experiments, we assessed nonconscious facial expression recognition using SvA curves in a condition in which faces (fearful vs. neutral) were rendered invisible using continuous flash suppression (CFS) for 500 and 700 milliseconds. We predicted and found nonconscious processing of face emotion, in the form of higher than chance-level sensitivity in the area of low likelihood of awareness.

Multilevel development of cognitive abilities in an artificial neural network

Several neuronal mechanisms have been proposed to account for the formation of cognitive abilities through postnatal interactions with the physical and sociocultural environment. Here, we introduce a three-level computational model of information processing and acquisition of cognitive abilities. We propose minimal architectural requirements to build these levels, and how the parameters affect their performance and relationships. The first sensorimotor level handles local nonconscious processing, here during a visual classification task. The second level or cognitive level globally integrates the information from multiple local processors via long-ranged connections and synthesizes it in a global, but still nonconscious, manner. The third and cognitively highest level handles the information globally and consciously. It is based on the global neuronal workspace (GNW) theory and is referred to as the conscious level. We use the trace and delay conditioning tasks to, respectively, challenge the second and third levels. Results first highlight the necessity of epigenesis through the selection and stabilization of synapses at both local and global scales to allow the network to solve the first two tasks. At the global scale, dopamine appears necessary to properly provide credit assignment despite the temporal delay between perception and reward. At the third level, the presence of interneurons becomes necessary to maintain a self-sustained representation within the GNW in the absence of sensory input. Finally, while balanced spontaneous intrinsic activity facilitates epigenesis at both local and global scales, the balanced excitatory/inhibitory ratio increases performance. We discuss the plausibility of the model in both neurodevelopmental and artificial intelligence terms.

Human Cognition and Data Journalism

Data journalism storytelling has become an important aspect of journalism during the twenty-first century. This cross-disciplinary research draws the attention of data journalism stakeholders to the mental operations (conscious choices and nonconscious mental processing) of a person who experiences storytelling with data. It is argued that data journalists can learn from the availability heuristic, the cognitive bias, and other concepts of cognitive science in an effort to become more attentive to the mental meFchanisms of their audience. Research from other disciplines, such as law (guilt determination) and economics, suggests that taking nonconscious decision-making seriously would be very productive for the field. Evidence suggests that a better understanding of the human brain's decision-making as well as of cognitive control may provide important insights for the data storytellers. This study is undertaken with an initial focus on the reasons why the audience acts upon emotional stories rather than data and statistics. We begin by arguing that data collection methods, measurement, and quantification may not be the only ‘obscure’ and difficult part to control for a data journalist, but after the cleaning, the analysis, and the visualization, the workings of the brain of the receptor, play a crucial role on what the individual will decide to do. The acts of journalism do not enter a tabula rasa, but rather a terra incognita. The research also examines the role of the language use by the data journalist; and whether language can overshadow data and consequently influence the reader’s perception on the information from an article. The study uses theories from various disciplines (communication, psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science) and gathers data by the use of qualitative research through interviews with cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists.

The Impaired Subcortical Pathway From Superior Colliculus to the Amygdala in Boys With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

ObjectiveIncreasing evidence suggests that a subcortical pathway from the superior colliculus (SC) through the pulvinar to the amygdala plays a crucial role in mediating non-conscious processing in response to emotional visual stimuli. Given the atypical eye gaze and response patterns to visual affective stimuli in autism, we examined the functional and white matter structural difference of the pathway in boys with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) boys.MethodsA total of 38 boys with ASD and 38 TD boys were included. We reconstructed the SC-pulvinar-amygdala pathway in boys with ASD and TD using tractography and analyzed tract-specific measurements to compare the white matter difference between the two groups. A region of interest-based functional analysis was also applied among the key nodes of the pathway to explore the functional connectivity network.ResultsDiffusion tensor imaging analysis showed decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) in pathways for boys with ASD compared to TD. The FA change was significantly associated with the atypical communication pattern in boys with ASD. In addition, compared to TD, we found that the ASD group was associated with increased functional connectivity between the right pulvinar and the left SC.ConclusionOur results indicated that the functional and white matter microstructure of the subcortical route to the amygdala might be altered in individuals with autism. This atypical structural change of the SC-pulvinar-amygdala pathway may be related to the abnormal communication patterns in boys with ASD.

Toward a theory of conscious–nonconscious processing and getting hard (and easy) things done in everyday life.

Toward a theory of conscious–nonconscious processing and getting hard (and easy) things done in everyday life.

Conceptualising Four Categories of Behaviours: Implications for Implementation Strategies to Achieve Behaviour Change.

Background: Effectiveness of implementation strategies is influenced by the extent to which they are based on appropriate theories concerning the behaviours that the strategies intend to impact. Effectiveness may be limited simply because the strategies are based on theories that are limited in scope or are derived from partially inaccurate assumptions about the behaviours in question. It may therefore be important to combine insights from various theories to cover the range of influences on the behaviours that will be changed. Aim: This article aims to explore concepts, theories and empirical findings from different disciplines to categorise four types of behaviours and discuss the implications for implementation strategies attempting to change these behaviours. Influences on behaviours: Multilevel influences on behaviours are dichotomized into individual-level and collective-level influences, and behaviours that are guided by conscious cognitive processes are distinguished from those that rely on non-conscious processing. Combining the two dimensions (levels and cognitive modes) creates a 2 x 2 conceptual map consisting of four categories of behaviours. Explicitly conceptualising the levels and cognitive modes is crucial because different implementation strategies are required depending on the characteristics of the behaviours involved in the practise that needs to be changed. Conclusion: The 2 x 2 conceptual map can be used to consider and reflect on the nature of the behaviours that need to be changed, thus providing guidance on the type of theory, model or framework that might be most relevant for understanding and facilitating behaviour change.

Factors Affecting Interpretation of Diagnostic Images as a Decision Process:

This article presents an empirical investigation into interpreters’ decision-making criteria, personality characteristics, and emotion-laden experiences as factors affecting interpretation of images that were created for diagnostic assessment. Specifically, it seeks to examine (1) heuristic strategies as interpretive tools, which are both cognitive and experience-based, (2) the relationship between the decision criteria and accuracy of the judgments, and (3) the relationship between interpreters’ experiences of abuse as victims and the judgments about the meaning of images. The study used a sample of 196 self-representational drawings created by college students and 60 independent interpreters who were asked to identify drawings that were created by individuals who experienced interpersonal abuse.&#x0D; This study identified six visual heuristics that were reported independently by 60 percent of the interpreters and were associated with marginally higher accuracy of the interpretive judgments. Thirty-eight percent of participants reported making judgments about the meaning of drawings based on direct or secondhand experiences with interpersonal abuse. The study found that the trauma of interpersonal abuse can profoundly bias interpretive judgments. This result has been particularly robust among female interpreters. Women who self-identified as survivors of abuse saw indicators of abuse up to 90 percent of the time, whereas male interpreters who have been abused saw indicators of abuse up to 65 percent of the time, whether or not those purported indicators were correct. Implications of the findings for design are discussed.&#x0D; An overarching goal of this article is to address interpretation of images as a decision process. The study situated the factors affecting interpretation of images within the framework of the naturalistic/ ecological psychology (Brunswik, 1952, 1955) and the fast and frugal heuristic model of decision-making (Gigerenzer, 2007) vis-à-vis a model of conscious and nonconscious information processing. This study also recognized that certain personality characteristics and emotion-laden experiences can influence the quality of interpretive judgments. The frameworks, methods, and findings from psychology have been used with an intent to inform future research and practice of image construction and interpretation in visual studies and design.&#x0D; One limitation of this study is that it relied on participants’ introspection and reflection on the decision process. There is a risk, then, that interpreters’ explanations of how they arrived with judgments were translations rather than representations of the decision process. Even though this study has not cracked the black box of meaning-making inside the mind, it offers an analytical framework for studies of visual interpretation as a decision process that combines cognitive, personality, and experiential factors as influencing the quality of interpretations. The article translates the findings of the study into practical guidelines for applications in visual communication design and human-centered design research and practice.

A reduced level of consciousness affects non-conscious processes

Being conscious is a profound aspect of human existence, and understanding its function and its inception is considered one of the truly grand scientific challenges. However, the nature of consciousness remains enigmatic, to a large part because “being conscious” can refer to both the content (phenomenology) and the level (arousal) of consciousness, and how these different aspects are related remains unclear. To empirically assess the relation between level and content of consciousness, we manipulated these two aspects by presenting stimuli consciously or non-consciously and by using Propofol sedation, while brain activity was measured using fMRI. We observed that sedation affected both conscious and non-conscious processes but at different hierarchical levels; while conscious processing was altered in higher-order regions (the intraparietal sulcus) and spared sensory areas, the opposite effect was observed for non-conscious processing. The observation that Propofol affected non-conscious processing calls for a reconsideration of what kind of information one can gain on “consciousness” from recording neural responses to sedation without considering both (content) conscious and (content) non-conscious processing.