Sex dependency of subconscious visual perception

Abstract Males are more susceptible to neurodevelopmental cognitive deficits in their perception of visual information. Subliminally-presented visual stimuli might be subconsciously perceived and consequently influence upcoming decisions, however it is still unclear whether subconscious perception differs between males and females. In this study, young adults performed a two-choice target detection task. In the Baseline condition (trials), participants relied only on their ability to detect the target. In the Cued-conscious condition, a visual cue (information) was presented (250 ms) on the same side of an upcoming target and indicated its location (left/right). In the Subliminal-same condition, a briefly presented (~16 ms) cue correctly indicated the target location, however in the Subliminal-opposite condition the cue was shown on the opposite side of the upcoming target and provided incorrect information. Participants’ performance in the Cued-conscious condition was significantly higher than the Baseline and subliminal conditions. In both females and males, performance in the Subliminal-same and Subliminal-opposite conditions was higher and lower than the Baseline condition respectively; indicating that the subliminal cues (information) affected upcoming decisions. However, the effects were significantly larger in males, suggesting males express heightened sensitivity to subliminal visual information, compared to age- and education-matched females. In both males and females, background acoustic stimuli (Music, White noise or Silence) influenced conscious and subconscious visual information processing. Autonomic nervous system activity, assessed through event-related electrodermal activity, was also differentially modulated by supraliminal and subliminal visual information. Our findings indicate remarkable sex dependency in the effects of subliminal visual information on cognitive functions.