When sustained attention impairs perception.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ling S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1986649 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
When sustained attention impairs perception.
Nature neuroscience 20060910 10
Virtually all behavioral and neurophysiological studies have shown that sustained (endogenous, conceptually driven) attention enhances perception. But can this enhancement be held indefinitely? We assessed the time course of attention's effects on contrast sensitivity, reasoning that if attention does indeed boost stimulus strength, the strengthened representation could result in stronger adaptation over time. We found that attention initially enhances contrast sensitivity, but that over time su ...[more]
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Project description:Background: Stress exacerbates symptoms of schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which are characterized by impairments in sustained attention. Yet how stress regulates attention remains largely unexplored. Here we investigated whether a 6-day variable stressor (VS) altered sustained attention and the cholinergic attention system in male and female rats. Methods: Sustained attention was tested with the sustained attention task (SAT). Successful performance on SAT relies on the release of acetylcholine (ACh) into the cortex from cholinergic neurons in the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM). Thus, we evaluated whether VS altered the morphology of these neurons with a novel approach using Cre-dependent virus in genetically modified ChAT::Cre rats, a species used for this manipulation only. Next, electrochemical recordings measured cortical ACh following VS. Finally, we used RNAseq to identify VS-induced transcriptional changes in the NBM. Results: VS impaired attentional performance in SAT and increased the dendritic complexity of NBM cholinergic neurons in both sexes. NBM cholinergic neurons are mainly under inhibitory control, so this morphological change could increase inhibition on these neurons, reducing downstream ACh release to impair attention. Indeed, VS decreased ACh release in the prefrontal cortex of males. Quantification of global transcriptional changes revealed that, although VS induced many sex-specific changes in gene expression, it increased several signaling molecules in both sexes.
2020-05-01 | GSE147806 | GEO
Project description:Stress can increase emotional vigilance at the cost of a decrease in attention towards non-emotional stimuli. However, the time-dependent effects of acute stress on emotion processing are uncertain. We tested the effects of acute stress on subsequent emotion processing up to 40 min following an acute stressor. Our measure of emotion processing was the late positive potential (LPP) component of the visual event-related potential (ERP), and our measure of non-emotional attention was the sustained attention to response task (SART). We also measured cortisol levels before and after the socially evaluated cold pressor test (SECPT) induction. We found that the effects of stress on the LPP ERP emotion measure were time sensitive. Specifically, the LPP ERP was only altered in the late time-point (30-40 min post-stress) when cortisol was at its highest level. Here, the LPP no longer discriminated between the emotional and non-emotional picture categories, most likely because neutral pictures were perceived as emotional. Moreover, compared to the non-stress condition, the stress-condition showed impaired performance on the SART. Our results support the idea that a limit in attention resources after an emotional stressor is associated with the brain incorrectly processing non-emotional stimuli as emotional and interferes with sustained attention.
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Project description:Stress regulation of sustained attention and the cholinergic attention system
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Project description:BackgroundStress exacerbates symptoms of schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, which are characterized by impairments in sustained attention. Yet how stress regulates attention remains largely unexplored. We investigated whether a 6-day variable stressor altered sustained attention and the cholinergic attention system in male and female rats.MethodsSustained attention was tested with the sustained attention task. Successful performance on the sustained attention task relies on the release of acetylcholine (ACh) into the cortex from cholinergic neurons in the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM). Thus, we evaluated whether variable stress (VS) altered the morphology of these neurons with a novel approach using a Cre-dependent virus in genetically modified ChAT::Cre rats, a species used for this manipulation only. Next, electrochemical recordings measured cortical ACh following VS. Finally, we used RNA sequencing to identify VS-induced transcriptional changes in the NBM.ResultsVS impaired attentional performance in the sustained attention task and increased the dendritic complexity of NBM cholinergic neurons in both sexes. NBM cholinergic neurons are mainly under inhibitory control, so this morphological change could increase inhibition on these neurons, reducing downstream ACh release to impair attention. Indeed, VS decreased ACh release in the prefrontal cortex of male rats. Quantification of global transcriptional changes revealed that although VS induced many sex-specific changes in gene expression, it increased several signaling molecules in both sexes.ConclusionsThese studies suggest that VS impairs attention by inducing molecular and morphological changes in the NBM. Identifying mechanisms by which stress regulates attention may guide the development of novel treatments for psychiatric disorders with attention deficits.
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