Subliminal faces with different valence: Unconscious mismatch detection indicates interactions between unconscious processing

Abstract

Many studies revealed unconscious effects on con-scious processing. However, in this study, we tried to investigate whether unconscious processes could in-teract with each other by using simultaneously pre-sented face pictures with the same or a different un-conscious valence (SUV versus DUV). In the first event-related potential (ERP) study, DUV elicited a smaller N2 as compared with SUV. In the second func-tional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experi-ment, the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) was acti-vated under DUV condition in comparison to SUV condition. These results support the idea of interac-tions between unconscious processes (unconscious mismatch detection). The theoretical implications are discussed in the light of the global neuronal work-space theory.