title: Cholinergic stimulation enhances Bayesian belief updating in the deployment of spatial attention.
abstract: The exact mechanisms whereby the cholinergic neurotransmitter system contributes to attentional processing remain poorly understood. Here, we applied computational modeling to psychophysical data (obtained from a spatial attention task) under a psychopharmacological challenge with the cholinesterase inhibitor galantamine (Reminyl). This allowed us to characterize the cholinergic modulation of selective attention formally, in terms of hierarchical Bayesian inference. In a placebo-controlled, within-subject, crossover design, 16 healthy human subjects performed a modified version of Posner's location-cueing task in which the proportion of validly and invalidly cued targets (percentage of cue validity, % CV) changed over time. Saccadic response speeds were used to estimate the parameters of a hierarchical Bayesian model to test whether cholinergic stimulation affected the trial-wise updating of probabilistic beliefs that underlie the allocation of attention or whether galantamine changed the mapping from those beliefs to subsequent eye movements. Behaviorally, galantamine led to a greater influence of probabilistic context (% CV) on response speed than placebo. Crucially, computational modeling suggested this effect was due to an increase in the rate of belief updating about cue validity (as opposed to the increased sensitivity of behavioral responses to those beliefs). We discuss these findings with respect to cholinergic effects on hierarchical cortical processing and in relation to the encoding of expected uncertainty or precision.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, United Kingdom, Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Research Centre Juelich, 52425 Juelich Germany, s.vossel@fz-juelich.de.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6351-8849
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vossel
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, United Kingdom, School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, United Kingdom, Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, London, United Kingdom, Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland, and.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4079-5453
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mathys
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Rick A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7661-8881
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Raymond J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Dolan
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, United Kingdom, Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland, and Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Klaas E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Stephan
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Karl J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7984-8909
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Friston
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D018679:Cholinergic Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003463:Cues; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D005702:Galantamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013028:Space Perception / Q000187:drug effects*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D018679:Cholinergic Agonists; D005702:Galantamine
keywords: Bayesian inference; acetylcholine; saccades; spatial attention