Toward a Theory of Consciousness: A Review of The Neural Correlates of Inattentional Blindness.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews September 1, 2019 B. Hutchinson
A review of neuroscientific studies using inattentional blindness—where people fail to see an unexpected object because their attention is elsewhere—finds clear evidence that visual processing up to intermediate stages (such as visual features and orthographic processing) occurs even when people are unaware of a stimulus. The most common brain activity markers linked to awareness are the visual awareness negativity and post-stimulus alpha suppression, while key brain regions involved include the lateral occipital cortex, temporoparietal junction, and intraparietal sulcus. The authors address limitations of this literature and recommend how future inattentional blindness research can advance neuroscientific theories of consciousness.