spotlight visual attention metaphor

metaphor of a “spotlight” of visual attention, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (fire-cast shadows) and Crick’s thalamic spotlight, both are unifying conceptions of human consciousness, and seem to reflect the same underlying metaphor of personal experience, the theatre metaphor, Plato’s may be more elaborate, but Crick’s spotlight has a more solid basis in brain anatomy and physiology

• cartesian theatre
• drunkard’s search

linked mentions for "spotlight visual attention metaphor":

1. first-person experience attending to a thing
   Attention involves the processing and organization of perceptual information, actively directing our cognitive resources toward our own mind