Magnetoencephalography (MEG), Attention and Conscience

The tight relationship between attention and conscious perception makes them difficult to study in isolation and has led many scientists to closely link these two processes. However, while some authors argue that conscious perception cannot occurs without attention, magnetoencephalography (MEG) and fMRI studies had shown that attention and consciousness are two distinct brain processes. If endogenously triggered attention and consciousness are dissociated, it has been proposed that orienting of exogenous attention is a necessary, though not sufficient, antecedent of conscious perception. In the present study we used MEG to explore the neural correlates of exogenous attention and consciousness during visual processing.