title: Cholinergic modulation of stimulus-driven attentional capture.
abstract: Distraction is one of the main problems encountered by people with degenerative diseases that are associated with reduced cortical cholinergic innervations. We examined the effects of donepezil, a cholinesterase inhibitor, on stimulus-driven attentional capture. Reflexive attention shifts to a distractor are usually elicited by abrupt peripheral changes. This bottom-up shift of attention to a salient item is thought to be the result of relatively inflexible hardwired mechanisms. Thirty young male participants were randomly allocated to one of two groups: placebo first/donepezil second session or the opposite. They were asked to locate a target appearing above and below fixation whilst a peripheral distractor moved abruptly (motion-jitter attentional capture condition) or not (baseline condition). A classical attentional capture effect was observed under placebo: moving distractors interfered with the task in slowing down response times as compared to the baseline condition with fixed distractors. Increased interference from moving distractors was found under donepezil. We suggest that attentional capture in our paradigm likely involved low level mechanisms such as automatic reflexive orienting. Peripheral motion-jitter elicited a rapid reflexive orienting response initiated by a cholinergic signal from the brainstem pedunculo-pontine nucleus that activates nicotinic receptors in the superior colliculus.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Affectives SCA-Lab, Université de Lille, CNRS, France. Electronic address: muriel.boucart@chru-lille.fr.
authors.forename: Muriel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boucart
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Psychology & Neuropsychology, Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université de Lyon, Université Lumière Lyon2, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: George Andrew
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Michael
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Affectives SCA-Lab, Université de Lille, CNRS, France.
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bubicco
authors.affiliation: Département de Pharmacologie médicale, Université de Lille, France.
authors.forename: Amelie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ponchel
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Investigation Clinique, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lille, France.
authors.forename: Nawal
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Waucquier
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Investigation Clinique, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lille, France.
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Deplanque
authors.affiliation: Département de Pharmacologie médicale, Université de Lille, France.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deguil
authors.affiliation: Département de Pharmacologie médicale, Université de Lille, France.
authors.forename: Régis
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bordet
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D000077265:Donepezil; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D006801:Humans; D007189:Indans / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D018697:Nootropic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010880:Piperidines / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors; D007189:Indans; D018697:Nootropic Agents; D010880:Piperidines; D000077265:Donepezil
keywords: Acetylcholine; Attentional capture; Donepezil; Superior colliculus; Visual attention