ID No.: 2000HZ67002
NAME OF THE STUDENT: RAJESH PARASURAMAN
DISSERTATION TITLE: A Critical Review of the Concept of Attention and its Role in Consciousness Studies
ABSTRACT
Consciousness is a very broad concept, it can be approached by studying a tractable, well-defined and testable component of itself such as attention (eg study of DNA is the study of life). The concept of “attention’ has been examined in detail by studying it from the point of view of neurobiology, cognitive psychology & psychoanalysis, western & Indian Philosophy, quantum physics and the relational viewpoint. A survey of neuroscientific literature till date has shown that the expression of attention has been demonstrated neuronally, and in localized cortical and sub cortical areas. Philosophical issues deal with the experiential aspect of attention, which ultimately forms the basis for exploring and investigating the physiological and psychological parameters of attention. Attention, seen in the light of modern quantum mechanics (QM) and relational viewpoint, provides us with important facts, ideas and methods, to study the relationship between attention and perception, attention and consciousness, attention and the binding problem, etc. A thorough review and a critical appraisal of Henry Stapp and Jeffrey Schwartz’s papers has also been done. The papers discuss the role of attention in QM and the role of attention in the formation of new brain circuitry, respectively. A scientific discussion of an understanding of consciousness must rest on the appreciation of the mechanisms that sub serve attention.
