So, how does the brain respond to things the mind doesn’t see? Remarkably, invisible pictures can leave traces in cortex. Wisps of unconscious processing can be picked up in the primary visual cortex (V1). The primary visual cortex is the terminus for information sent from the eyes. Located just above the bump at the back of the head, it is the first neocortical region evaluating pictorial information. Other sectors of the cerebral cortex respond to suppressed pictures as well—notably the cascade of higher-order visual regions (V2, V3, and so on) that extends beyond the primary visual cortex,
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