Clarifying the Triangular Circuit Theory of Attention and its Relations to Awareness Replies to Seven Commentaries

Replies are given to the commentaries of the seven cognitive science experts. Additional circuit diagrams clarify thalamic operations in attention and basal ganglia operations by which motivation affects attention. Selection-by-suppression and negative priming are accounted for within frontal control areas. Confusions between the terms awareness and consciousness persist, owing to the powerful habit of using awareness as a synonym for consciousness. Leaving consciousness as an umbrella term to denote many loosely-defined aspects of experience, the term awareness denotes the aspect of experience in which attention is directed to bodily sensations, thereby involving the self in ongoing experience. The responses to the commentaries are organized under three main headings: (1) anatomical properties of the triangular circuit of attention; (2) functions of the triangular circuit in attention; and (3) relations of attention to awareness and self-awareness. 1. Anatomical Properties of the Triangular Circuit of