With the aid of brain scanners, researchers at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College, London recently showed that the brain does register subliminal images even if a person is unaware they have seen them – although the images only had an impact when the brain had “spare capacity” in terms of attention.
According to Dr. Bahador Bahrami, one of the researchers, “[w]hat’s interesting here is that your brain does log things that you aren’t even aware of and can’t ever become aware of.” For short articles describing the research, click here and here.