Acetylcholine contributes through muscarinic receptors to attentional modulation in V1

Attention exerts a strong influence over neuronal processing in cortical areas. It selectively increases firing rates and affects tuning properties, including changing receptive field locations and sizes. Although these effects are well studied, their cellular mechanisms are poorly understood. To st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Nature 2008-08, Vol.454 (7208), p.1110-1114
Main Authors:	Delicato, L. S, Gieselmann, M. A, Dayan, P, Herrero, J. L, Thiele, A, Roberts, M. J
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Acetylcholine Acetylcholine - metabolism Acetylcholine - pharmacology Animals Attention - drug effects Biological and medical sciences Cells Chemical properties Cholinergic Antagonists - pharmacology Cognition & reasoning Eye and associated structures. Visual pathways and centers. Vision Eyes & eyesight Feedback Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Macaca mulatta Macaca mulatta - physiology Magnetic Resonance Imaging Male Mecamylamine - pharmacology Monkeys & apes Muscarinic Antagonists - pharmacology Muscarinic receptors Neurons Nicotinic Antagonists - pharmacology Properties Receptors, Cholinergic - metabolism Receptors, Muscarinic - metabolism Scopolamine - pharmacology Studies Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:	Attention exerts a strong influence over neuronal processing in cortical areas. It selectively increases firing rates and affects tuning properties, including changing receptive field locations and sizes. Although these effects are well studied, their cellular mechanisms are poorly understood. To study the cellular mechanisms, we combined iontophoretic pharmacological analysis of cholinergic receptors with single cell recordings in V1 while rhesus macaque monkeys (Macaca mulatta) performed a task that demanded top-down spatial attention. Attending to the receptive field of the V1 neuron under study caused an increase in firing rates. Here we show that this attentional modulation was enhanced by low doses of acetylcholine. Furthermore, applying the muscarinic antagonist scopolamine reduced attentional modulation, whereas the nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine had no systematic effect. These results demonstrate that muscarinic cholinergic mechanisms play a central part in mediating the effects of attention in V1.
ISSN:	0028-0836 1476-4687 1476-4679