Abstract

The premotor theory of attention, originally proposed by Carlo Umiltà and colleagues, has profoundly shaped our understanding of how motor processes underlie spatial attention and visual perception. This review examines Umiltà’s core theoretical and empirical contributions, focusing on the evidence that motor preparation plays a causal role in attentional selection rather than merely following it. Drawing on a body of recent work, we show how the foundational principles of premotor theory have continued to inform contemporary research, with new findings refining our understanding of the underlying mechanisms: the interplay between reflexive and voluntary orienting, the action-specificity of motor representations, and the multilevel cognitive control processes that unfold across distinct timescales. Umiltà’s enduring legacy lies in a broader theoretical vision, one in which cognition is inherently sensorimotor, and perception, attention, and action are not separate faculties but facets of a single, integrated system. This perspective has reshaped the questions cognitive science asks about the mind, and continues to drive new lines of inquiry.