Incredible Unconscious Learning: New Study

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]This study published in one of the world's top science journals could change how you look at consciousness, memory, and learning. I'm Dr. Austin Perlmutter, and if you love brain science, be sure to follow this channel, and you're going to enjoy this video.

[00:00:13]Let's jump right in. So, the study that came out this week in the journal Nature, one of the world's top journals, was looking at how the unconscious brain is capable of learning from and responding to data.

[00:00:26]What they did is they had about seven people who were unconscious because they were undergoing brain surgery, and then they inserted a tiny little set of probes into the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain.

[00:00:37]Then they exposed these people to sound.

[00:00:40]And what they found is that the neurons in the hippocampus, they were able to look at the firing rate of the neurons in response to the sound, but then they threw in an oddball sound. So, a different sound, and what they found is that the neurons responded differently to this oddball sound. What was most interesting, however, is they found that over time, after they did this experiment many times, that the neurons actually got better at responding to this oddball sound, indicating these neurons may be learning despite the fact that these people were unconscious. But where the study went next was even more fascinating. So, they had these people listening to podcasts while they were unconscious. What they found is, again, looking at the firing rate of these neurons, that the neurons could respond differently depending on whether the sound they were hearing, the word they were hearing, was something like a noun or a verb. But let's take it one step further. When they ran some additional analysis, what they were able to find is that the brain, even unconscious, was able to predict what type of word would come next. And that's really fascinating because it means that higher-level cognitive functions are actually online even in an unconscious brain. So, while there's a whole lot more to discuss as to the relevance of these types of data to our understanding of the brain and why this may be important for a number of different aspects of cognitive research and consciousness research.

[00:02:01]What the study does do is it demonstrates that even when we are not conscious, various processes are happening within our brains and that what's happening below the surface may be so much more fascinating than what most people realize. This is a complex study, but I will include it in the description. There's lots of interesting information contained in the original research. If you're interested to continue learning about these types of scientific studies and brain health in general for me, be sure to subscribe.

[00:02:28]I'm Dr. Austin Perlmutter. Thanks so much for watching. I'll talk to you again soon.