The scientists who conducted the experiments with subliminal messages have shown that hidden images are recieved by the brain even when we are totally unaware of their presence!

Researchers, lead by Bahador Bahrami, discovered that a subject's brain was able to register images that were faint or those flashed at speed if they were in their visual line of sight, even when the subject was adamant that they had not seen anything i.e. subliminal messages.

Although current psychological assumptions work on the belief that what we pay attention to and what we are aware of are the same, this study shows otherwise. Bahrami and his team have shown that we do not need to be aware of subliminal messages for them to have an affect on the brain. Even though we can be totally unaware of any images being shown to us in the form of subliminal messages, the brain is aware and registers them!

These findings can support the idea that subliminal messages in advertising do grab our attention!

This could account for being aware of billboards on the roadside or flashing computer graphic ads on websites not to mention the use of visual subliminal messages in magazine advertisements! It could also account for the phenomenon of being in a crowed room with a lot of conversations going on and suddenly being aware of someone mentioning your name across the room!

The University's studies revolved around experiments that used volunteers who wore special eye-glasses. One lens was red while the other lens was coloured blue.

One eye of the glasses projected blue flashing light while the other eye showed faint or fast flashing images.

As these two sets of images were given to the eyes of the volunteers they were required to perform simple mental tasks that varied in difficulty. Meanwhile the participant's brain was being monitored and the activity in the visual cortex was studied.

The researcher's clearly showed that the brain registered the images although the subject was unaware of having seen anything - just as subliminal messages work! This effect was greater when the participants had to use less concentration with easier tasks.

This supports the experimenter's view that some attention is needed for subliminal messages to be registered. If a person is fully occupied in another activity then the subliminal messages may not get through to the brain.

However, when we look at subliminal advertising we see that it does not require a great deal of concentration and our attention is usually on the advertisement which would mean the subliminal messages would easily get through!

This would be the same if we had flashing subliminal messages on our computer or television screen!

Since the 1958 Vicary experiments with popcorn and coke subliminal messages in a movie theater, scientists have hotly debated whether subliminal messages are even registered by the brain at all. This latest study proves that they are!

Although scientists at the University College London do not state that these subliminal messages are effective at influencing us they do admit that they are registered by the brain even though we are unaware of them.

I think it is only a matter of time before their effectiveness for influencing us is determined. If they were not effective why would they be used in multi-million dollar advertising campaigns and why would the Bush campaign have flashed the words "bureaucrats" and "rats" over a pictorial representation of Al Gore's election proposals?