Unconscious mind sees more than you

A new study suggests that your brain can see and process more information than you might think.

Researchers from Rice University came to this conclusion after testing volunteers who agreed to allow the scientists to temporarily shut down the part of their brain that processes visual information, or the primary visual cortex, according to a report from Livescience. During their flash of blindness, volunteers were staring at a computer screen and were shown a simple image.

When asked if they saw the picture, all of them said "no." But when asked to guess at what they saw, whether it was a color or shape, the nine volunteers gave right answers almost three out of four times.

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online edition this week.