The Brain Knows More than It Admits: The Control of Cognition and Emotion by Non-Conscious Processes

Dear Colleagues,

Most of us agree that human decision making and finally behaviour is based on and influenced by cognition- and emotion-related information processing some of which takes place without simultaneous awareness. Phenomena such as priming and implicit memory are well known and demonstrate that stored information is able to change human behaviour in the complete absence of any awareness. To what extent such non-conscious information processing contributes to even highest forms of brain functions remains unclear. However, evidence accumulates leading to the notion that astonishingly much of our most sophisticated brain functions work totally independent from consciousness. Discrepancies between self report and objective measurement have been reported. The brain knows more than it admits.

The current special issue is meant to collect a selected number of articles that demonstrate how information processing in the absence of awareness (non-conscious information processing) is able to manage and influence even complex human cognitive and emotion-related information processing and thus guides human behaviour outside subjective experience.

Prof. Dr. Peter Walla
Guest Editor