Thalamus vs Reticular Activating System

[monkeywantsabanana]

Hey guys, i need some help ... any would be appreciated !

So, i cannot find the differences between the RAS and the Thalamus this is what i have so far:

Reticular Activating System:

1) Regulates cortical arousal ( influences whether we are awake, drowsy, asleep )
2) Regulates attention ( influences what and what not to attend to )
3) Detect and filter out weak incoming sensory information allowing the brain to concentrate on a particular stimulus

Thalamus:

1) Filters information from the senses and transmits the information to parts of the cerebral cortex
2) Influences arousal ( influences our wakefulness and levels of alertness )
3) Influences attention ( putting weight to some input and giving less weight to others )

So, my question is... What are the differences between these two structures?

They seem to be the same !

[Zafaraaaa]

They do -work together- to influence our arousal levels; Because the reticular formation has projections to the thalamus and cerebral cortex that enable it to have some control over which sensory messages reach the brain and come to our attention.

However, from what I've seen in past exam questions usually the RAS is especially important for the transition from deep sleep to wakefulness and the thalamus for turning sensory input on and off (relaying/filtering what sensory stimuli gets to the cerebral cortex)

But ultimately, you're right, they do have veryyyy similar functions

[REBORN]

Zafaraaaa for 50! 8-)

Essentially everything she said but don't think about arousal...it's a poor way of thinking about.

Always talk about attention and sleep-wake transition in terms of RAS.