Although scientists still aren’t sure what human consciousness is, they are coming up with something just as
intriguing — neurobiological evidence for the human unconscious state. In psychoanalysis, a core concept is that signal anxiety — the unconscious anticipation of an adverse outcome when presented with a situation reminiscent of an unpleasant event from the past — prompts our neurotic reactions. Now two scientists — Philip Wong of the New School in NY and Howard Shevrin of U. Michigan — have demonstrated neurobiological evidence for the existence of this “immaterial” unconscious process. Psychiatric News