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Science 22 December 1967:
Vol. 158. no. 3808, pp. 1597 - 1600
DOI: 10.1126/science.158.3808.1597
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Articles

Responses of Human Somatosensory Cortex to Stimuli below Threshold for Conscious Sensation

B. Libet 1, W. W. Alberts 2, E. W. Wright Jr. 2, and B. Feinstein 2

1 Mount Zion Neurological Institute and University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco
2 Mount Zion Neurological Institute, San Francisco 94115

Averaged evoked responses of somatosensory cortex, recorded subdurally, appeared with stimuli (skin, ventral posterolateral nucleus, cortex) which were subthreshold for sensation. Such responses were deficient in late components. Subthreshold stimuli could elicit sensation with suitable repetition. The primary evoked response was not sufficient for sensation. These facts bear on the problems of neurophysiological correlates of conscious and unconscious experience, and of "subliminal perception."


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