Attention in the 7-step sensory process strongly relates to the first two steps. Inhibition at the third stage plays a vital role in processing information entering the CNS. It regulates the excitation process more precisely since this inhibition can block individual nerve fibers entirely. Hundreds and thousands of different impulses can come to one excitatory neuron along different paths, but the number of impulses that reach the neuron is determined by presynaptic inhibition. Attention can be used in the fifth step as a driver of information to update the network responsible for completing patterns.
Attention is strongly interconnected at various levels of the dorsal and ventral visual stream. Spatial attention is associated not only with the general identification of objects but also with their components at the V4 level. The ventral stream terminates in the inferior temporal cortex, which is closely associated with the mechanisms and functioning of memory, providing the process of recognizing objects in the last stages of sensory processes. The nature of attention is generally dynamic, as evidenced by the dynamics of comparing two approaches to its understanding. Hochstein and Ahissar’s figure suggests a downward identification of objects by decomposing them into primitives to test – this is the behavior of spatial attention, while the upward arrow indicates the movement of special attention from the same sections of the brain. In the Hochstein and Ahissar figure, these two types of attention are more differentiated and seem connected only at the extreme points. Buschman and Kastner present a more complex diagram in their figure. It reflects the interplay of spatial and special attention more precisely, clearly identifying points of contact and levels. In addition, psychophysical studies have proven their connection with the function of influencing and controlling each other.