Autonomic responses to subliminally processed positive stimuli

Abstract: Subconsciously processed fearful stimuli are routed via the limbic system directly from the thalamus to the amygdala and can automatically trigger physical and behavioural fear responses to prevent humans from getting injured. The purpose of this study was to investigate if there were any autonomic responses to stimuli containing positive valence and a high arousal level. The stimuli were normative pictures, picked from the IAPS that were presented subliminally in a masked condition. Reactions were measured by skin conductance responses. Changes of SCR were registered when the participants were exposed to negative, positive and neutral stimuli. Responses were strongest as the participants were exposed to the positive pictures. These findings support that there could be more functions to automatic responding than a direct survival purpose. Further research needs to be done to investigate what functions these kinds of responses constitute.