Let's read Attention and consciousness (2006), Christof Koch and Naotsugu Tsuchiya

Attention and consciousness: two distinct brain processes (2006), Christof Koch and Naotsugu Tsuchiya. This paper argues that attention and consciousness are different.

This paper in an expanded format is viewable on Scholarpedia.

Attention in this paper always means "selective attention". Think of it as "shining a spotlight" on something, like a face, a melody, a word. It does not mean general arousal and alertness.

We argue that events or objects can be attended to without being consciously perceived. Furthermore, an event or object can be consciously perceived in the near absence of top-down attentional processing.