Relation Between Visual Attention and Consciousness: An Overview

In the field of consciousness, disagreements between the theories of recurrent processing and global neural workspace have generated a lot of discussion. Here, we concentrate on the suggested connection between consciousness and attention, which is one of the main differences between these theories. Examining current empirical data, we contend that both theories offer important insights and that some of each theory's components can be combined. Many studies have suggested a close relationship between attention and consciousness. They also suggested that without attention, we are not able to be aware of any objects. On the other hand, some research findings suggested that we can manipulate attention in the absence of consciousness. Some research paradigms, i.e., in-attentional paradigm, dual task paradigm, and priming paradigm, are used for a better understanding of the relation between attention and consciousness. We also focus on an object without being aware. This controversy leads to the question of whether we can attend to an object without being aware of it or not. In the present study, we reconcile the ongoing debate of the relation between attention and consciousness.