title: Noncholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain: often neglected but motivationally salient.
abstract: Although noncholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain are known to contribute to cognition, their response properties in behaving animals is unclear. In this issue of Neuron, Lin and Nicolelis demonstrate that these neurons represent the motivational salience of sensory stimuli and may modulate cortical processing to direct top-down attention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 87, New York, NY 10032, USA. brian.lau@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: C Daniel
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Salzman
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D009042:Motivation; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D016548:Prosencephalon / Q000166:cytology*; D051381:Rats