PFC Reticular formation (RAS) Brain stem Cortex Spinal cord The RAS serves as an executive personal secretary to the PFC, forwarding on only what s immediately relevant. Similarly, the RAS holds back unimportant sensory input, but lets relevant information pass on to the PFC. Demonstrate how a strainer allows only some things to pass through. Clarify for the Class RAS signals Make a model of the RAS using a kitchen strainer, fine sand, and gravel. Sensory awareness activities in this lesson and the others in this unit provide your students with repeated RAS-strengthening practice. Such practice is especially important for students who have trouble focusing their attention on their work, instructions, or social cues. With practice focusing on specific details, students can train their RAS to be more effective. Athletes, musicians, scholars, and other focused people have trained their RAS to choose the most pertinent sensory stimuli. A mindful, focused student is able to reassure herself that lunch period will come after math and to redirect her attention to the task at hand. It s easy to imagine how these stimuli might cause her to shift her attention from the classroom to what she hopes to eat for lunch. The RAS is critically important because the brain cannot process the millions of bits of sensory information coming in at once! A student sitting in a classroom likely has competing sensory experiences the voice of her teacher, the vibration of a cell phone, the sight of a friend walking by the classroom, the aroma of food from the cafeteria. The sensory input deemed relevant by the RAS is routed on to its appropriate destination in the conscious brain. Sensory stimuli (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, taste) continually arrive via the spinal cord and are sorted and screened by the RAS. The RAS helps keep the brain awake and alert and is the brain s attention-focusing center. This reticular formation, also called the reticular activating system (RAS), helps regulate many basic body functions and connects the brain stem to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and other parts of the brain. Eighth-grade teacher 52 52ģ Linking to Brain Research What Is the RAS? mindful listening lesson 4 An intricate network of long nerve pathways lies within the core of the brain stem. They ll apply mindful listening to observing the way people speak to one another in particular, identifying the tone of someone s voice and monitoring their own. What Can You Ex pect to Observe? Students really make an effort tune in to details of the sounds they hear and point out the nuances of sounds that make them distinct. This work helps prepare students for following directions, resolving conflicts through discussion, building friendships, and listening critically to news, ads, and other media messages.
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Being able to listen in a focused way to what others say and to home in on details such as tone and inflection gives a listener a clearer notion about the meaning of the words and a better idea for how to respond. Mindful listening also lays the groundwork for social awareness and effective communi cation an important part of the Common Core Standards. As students monitor their own auditory experience noting what they choose to focus on and/or respond to they build sel f-awareness and self- management skills. In fact, training our brains to concentrate on specific sounds helps heighten our sensory awareness. Why Practice Mindful Listening? Research suggests that students become more focused and responsive to their environment by participating in mindful listening activities, such as Audio Alert in this lesson. Mindful listening helps us choose which sounds to focus our attention on and helps us to be thoughtful in the way we hear and respond to the words of others. 2 Mindful Listening What Is Mindful Listening? From the buzz of a cell phone to the wail of a siren, sounds are all around us.
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