From Input to Intake: Towards a Brain-Based Perspective of Selective Attention

Abstract

The authors focus on the role of selective attention in transforming input to intake. They take a neurobiological approach and specifically focus on the physiology of the nucleus reticularis thalami as central in orchestrating the selection and and husband of relevance sensory input. It thus functions as a conductor of neural systems involved in learning. Thus, a major concern for language acquisition researchers is how language learners selectively attend to information in the environment, that is, how input becomes intake. Input and intake are characterised as both objects and processes. When input is characterized as an object, it may be equated with the source of information to which the learner is attending. As helpful as these attempts to describe input and intake may be, they remain abstract characterized patients of learner behavior and, as such, reveal nothing of the underlying mechanisms involved (p.269) ...in the present perspective, input is viewed as the object of the learner's attention and intake is viewed as the product of information processing in as the brain... (p.269). language learning requires that the brains processing systems have access to relevant input. This is accomplished through selective attention, the phenomenon whereby an individual directs attention to and maintains attention on the stimuli of relevance. Whether it occurs early or late, selective attention is the outcome of multiple mechanisms mediating action directed toward achieving goals or satisfying criteria set by the individual's internal context (p.270). ...all connections from the thalamus to the cortex (thalamocortical) and back (corticothalamic) pass through the {NRT} (nucleus reticularis thalami) (Jones 1985). By virtue of its location, the {NRT} is intimately involved in the modulation of all communication between the thalamus and the cortex. it constitutes a high-resolution organic "screen" capable of monitoring and modulating thalamo-cortical interactions (Scheibel & Scheibel 1966), a "screen" that preferentially enhances certain aspects of stimuli and simultaneously attenuates the salience of other input. The hippocampus, which is located deep within the temporal lobe, consolidates recently acquired information and is involved in laying down your memories...(p.275). The {NRT} may assist the hippocampus by noticing and maintaining attention on relevant stimuli. The {NRT} may similarly facilitate cerebellar processing. The cerebellum has been implicated in cognitive functions such as the learning of rote memories. Also the basal ganglia is involved in learning and has been found to be related to lexical or letter level processing. It has been suggested that (the) {NRT} establish(es) a feedback system which provides a mechanism for focusing attention (Scheibel & Scheibel 1972, Scheibel 1981) and results and the transformation of selected input into intake. The key assumption here is that information ascending through the {NRT} to the cerebral cortex constitutes intake (or at least potential intake), which is the metaphorical equivalent of integrated and retrievable neural representations. Such neural representations provide the building blocks for continued knowledge (language) acquisition (p.285) The {NRT's} posited role in language acquisition is at present neither directly observable nor testable (p.287).