title: Enhanced control of attention by stimulating mesolimbic-corticopetal cholinergic circuitry.
abstract: Sustaining and recovering attentional performance requires interactions between the brain's motivation and attention systems. The first experiment demonstrated that in rats performing a sustained attention task (SAT), presentation of a distractor (dSAT) augmented performance-associated increases in cholinergic neurotransmission in prefrontal cortex. Because stimulation of NMDA receptors in the shell of the nucleus accumbens activates PFC cholinergic neurotransmission, a second experiment demonstrated that bilateral infusions of NMDA into the NAc shell, but not core, improved dSAT performance to levels observed in the absence of a distractor. A third experiment demonstrated that removal of prefrontal or posterior parietal cholinergic inputs, by intracortical infusions of the cholinotoxin 192 IgG-saporin, attenuated the beneficial effects of NMDA on dSAT performance. Mesolimbic activation of cholinergic projections to the cortex benefits the cognitive control of attentional performance by enhancing the detection of cues and the filtering of distractors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-8862, USA.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: St Peters
authors.forename: Elise
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Demeter
authors.forename: Cindy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lustig
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Bruno
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sarter
mesh_terms: D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000378:metabolism*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D017551:Microdialysis; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000494:pharmacology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000378:metabolism; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; D016202:N-Methylaspartate; D000109:Acetylcholine