Attention schema theory

The attention schema theory (AST) of consciousness is a neuroscientific and evolutionary theory of consciousness (or subjective awareness) developed by neuroscientist Michael Graziano at Princeton University. It proposes that brains construct subjective awareness as a schematic model of the process of attention. The theory is a materialist theory of consciousness. It shares similarities with the illusionist ideas of philosophers like Daniel Dennett, Patricia Churchland, and Keith Frankish.

Graziano proposed that an attention schema is like the body schema. Just as the brain constructs a simplified model of the body to monitor and control its movement, it also constructs a simplified model of attention to help monitor and control its own attention. The information in that model, portraying an incomplete and simplified version of attention, leads the brain to conclude that it has a non-physical essence of awareness. Thus subjective awareness is the brain's efficient but imperfect model of its own attention. This approach intends to explain how awareness and attention are similar in many respects, yet are sometimes dissociated; how the brain can be aware of internal and external events, and provides testable predictions.

In the theory, an attention schema necessarily evolved due to its fundamental adaptive uses in perception, cognition, and social interaction.