Final answer:
Attention is involved in the neuronal workspace hypothesis as it plays a crucial role in selecting and maintaining the activation of specific neuronal workspaces that are relevant to the task or information being attended to.
Step-by-step explanation:
The neuronal workspace hypothesis proposes that conscious thoughts are represented by dynamic patterns of activity in specific groups of neurons, referred to as neuronal workspaces. Attention is involved in this hypothesis as it plays a crucial role in selecting and maintaining the activation of specific neuronal workspaces that are relevant to the task or information being attended to.
When attention is directed towards a particular stimulus or task, it enhances the activity of the corresponding neuronal workspace, thereby facilitating the processing and representation of relevant information. This can be observed through experiments that measure brain activity during attention-based tasks, where increased blood flow and neural activity are observed in the areas associated with the attended stimuli or tasks.
For example, in a visual attention task, if a subject is asked to focus on a specific object or location, the corresponding neuronal workspace associated with that object or location will exhibit heightened activity. This helps in maintaining the selected information in conscious awareness and allows for further processing and integration of relevant information.