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Background: Among all the intellectual processes of the human brain, attention is probably the most important cognitive function to be assessed during the mental status examination. Many theories have been proposed for its understanding. It is important to combine this knowledge to understand the role of attention in various psychiatric disorders. Methods: The PubMed, Google and Cochrane Library were searched. Articles were searched using the keywords of “attention” AND biology”, “attention” AND “Hypothesis”, “attention” AND “chemistry”, “attention” AND “process”, “attention” AND “mechanism”, “attention AND anatomy, “attention” AND “neuroanatomy”, “attention” AND “physiology”, “attention” AND “classification”. Discussion: The concept of attention has undergone a huge change along with an improvement in our understanding of anatomy and physiology of the brain. From the earlier postulate of ‘everybody knows what is attention’ there has been a shift to the current conceptualisation that attention is a “phenomena” which is one of the most important and complex cognitive functions of the brain. Several concepts about attention have held their ground and have been corroborated by scientific experiments and imaging techniques. Others have either fallen through or have been modified drastically. All this has led to a better understanding of the processes involved in attention, its disorders and their implications in psychiatric illnesses. Conclusion: Attention as a vital cognitive function influences all other cognitive processes in the mental well-being. It is classified as per the process, the stimuli-their nature and its recovery. Different chemicals, structures and neural mechanisms are involved. It influences general states like memory, confusion, neglect and also psychiatric disorders of which attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder is the prototype.