title: Persistent Neuronal Activity in Anterior Cingulate Cortex Correlates with Sustained Attention in Rats Regardless of Sensory Modality.
abstract: The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has long been thought to regulate conflict between an object of attention and distractors during goal-directed sustained attention. However, it is unclear whether ACC serves to sustained attention itself. Here, we developed a task in which the time course of sustained attention could be controlled in rats. Then, using pharmacological lesion experiments, we employed it to assess function of ACC in sustained attention. We then recorded neuronal activity in ACC using multichannel extracellular recording techniques and identified specific ACC neurons persistently activated during the period of attention. Further experiments showed that target modality had minimal influence on the neuronal activity, and distracting external sensory input during the attention period did not perturb persistent neuronal activity. Additionally, minimal trial-to-trial variability in neuronal activity observed during sustained attention supports a role for ACC neurons in that behavior. Therefore, we conclude that the ACC neuronal activity correlates with sustained attention.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors.forename: Dingcheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.|Graduate School of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Hanfei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.|Graduate School of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Xiong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors.forename: Yanfang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zuo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors.forename: Zuoren
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley