Reticular Formation Summary
Activation by Attention of the Human Reticular
Formation and Thalamic Intralaminar Nuclei
In the article Activation by Attention of the Human Reticular Formation and Thalamic Intralaminar Nuclei by Shigeo Kinomura, Jonas Larsson, Balázs Gulyás, and Per E. Roland (1996), they address whether or not the midbrain reticular formation and the thalamic intralaminar nuclei of the brain actually cause arousal and vigilance. They do this by conducting a series of experiments.
The reticular formation is a system of nerves whose main job is to send alert signals of the higher parts of the brain (Morris & Maisto, 2009). Proving that the MRF (Midbrain Reticular Formation) and the Thalamic Intralaminar Nuclei are responsible for arousal and alertness …show more content…
The authors hypothesized that going from a resting state to a state of high attention would increase the synaptic activity in the MRF and also increase the rCBF in these areas. The ten volunteers were hooked up to a Positron emission tomography (PET) scan and monitored while they completed these tasks. Nine of the volunteers were right handed and one was ambidextrous. During the “at rest” activities, the volunteers were supine with their eyes closed holding a response key in their right hand. During visual timed response task the volunteers were instructed to click the response key when the yellow light they were fixated on increased in brightness. The light was set to increase its brightness in random intervals. During the somatic response time task, the volunteers were still fixated on the yellow light but were instructed to press the response key as soon as they felt a stylus poke their left index …show more content…
The authors found that the rCBF in the midbrain tegmentum and the intralaminar domain of the thalamus is greater during vigilance and attention than when the volunteers were awakened from resting or when they were awake performing self-generated activity. It can therefore be stated that these parts of the brain react without receiving a signal from any of the sensory modalities, and their activation was directly linked with an increase of blood flow in the cerebral cortex (Kinomura et al. 1996). The authors conclude that the MRF and thalamic intralaminal nuclei are responsible for not only the transition from sleep to alert but are also responsible for the transition from relaxed to high attention and the maintenance of high
Formation and Thalamic Intralaminar Nuclei
In the article Activation by Attention of the Human Reticular Formation and Thalamic Intralaminar Nuclei by Shigeo Kinomura, Jonas Larsson, Balázs Gulyás, and Per E. Roland (1996), they address whether or not the midbrain reticular formation and the thalamic intralaminar nuclei of the brain actually cause arousal and vigilance. They do this by conducting a series of experiments.
The reticular formation is a system of nerves whose main job is to send alert signals of the higher parts of the brain (Morris & Maisto, 2009). Proving that the MRF (Midbrain Reticular Formation) and the Thalamic Intralaminar Nuclei are responsible for arousal and alertness …show more content…
The authors hypothesized that going from a resting state to a state of high attention would increase the synaptic activity in the MRF and also increase the rCBF in these areas. The ten volunteers were hooked up to a Positron emission tomography (PET) scan and monitored while they completed these tasks. Nine of the volunteers were right handed and one was ambidextrous. During the “at rest” activities, the volunteers were supine with their eyes closed holding a response key in their right hand. During visual timed response task the volunteers were instructed to click the response key when the yellow light they were fixated on increased in brightness. The light was set to increase its brightness in random intervals. During the somatic response time task, the volunteers were still fixated on the yellow light but were instructed to press the response key as soon as they felt a stylus poke their left index …show more content…
The authors found that the rCBF in the midbrain tegmentum and the intralaminar domain of the thalamus is greater during vigilance and attention than when the volunteers were awakened from resting or when they were awake performing self-generated activity. It can therefore be stated that these parts of the brain react without receiving a signal from any of the sensory modalities, and their activation was directly linked with an increase of blood flow in the cerebral cortex (Kinomura et al. 1996). The authors conclude that the MRF and thalamic intralaminal nuclei are responsible for not only the transition from sleep to alert but are also responsible for the transition from relaxed to high attention and the maintenance of high