Conscious activity is restricted in what it can focus on: it selects only a single item at a time and broadcasts it widely across the brain. Unconscious processing of information, in contrast, can take place in many different areas of the cortex simultaneously, but that information is not broadcast to other areas. As you read these words, for example, you are aware of your surroundings – ambient sounds, temperature and so on. That sensory information about your surroundings is processed unconsciously in the brain, but because the information is not broadcast widely, you are not consciously
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