Selective attention, a fundamental cognitive mechanism, has been a focus of research since the early 20th century due to its essential role in numerous other cognitive functions like perception, working-memory, decision-making, and social cognition. It enables the filtering and prioritization of behaviorally significant information, thereby enhancing perception and response accuracy to sensory stimuli. This cognitive function is particularly well studied for the visual modality, and is thought to have evolved alongside the expansion of the visual systems in primates, underscoring an evolutionary advantage for efficient information processing. The article aims to delve into the dynamics of how attention is controlled, leveraging research on non-human primates to explore the neural underpinnings of selective attention, including the principal brain regions involved, neural markers at the individual neuron level, and the dynamic interactions across neural networks.