The neural substrates associated with inattentional blindness
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
Published on: July 5, 2015
1Department of Psychology, Boston College, McGuinn Hall, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. thakralp@bc.edu
Abstract:
Inattentional blindness is the failure to perceive salient stimuli presented at unattended locations. Whereas the behavioral manifestation of inattentional blindness has been investigated, the neural basis of this phenomenon has remained elusive. In the current study, event-related fMRI was used to identify the neural substrates associated with inattentional blindness. During central fixation, participants named colored digits presented at a peripheral location. On a subset of trials, an unexpected checkerboard circle (the critical stimulus) was presented at the same eccentricity along with the colored digits (a post-scan questionnaire assessed participants' awareness of the critical stimulus). Neural activity during inattentional blindness was observed in the prefrontal cortex. Together with previous findings, these results call into question the widespread view that activity in the prefrontal cortex reflects conscious processing.
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