The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha5 subunit plays a key role in attention circuitry and accuracy.
The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha5 subunit plays a key role in attention circuitry and accuracy.
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DOI：
10.1523/jneurosci.2258-10.2010
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发表时间：
2010-07-07
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Lambe EK
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文献类型：
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作者：
Bailey CD;De Biasi M;Fletcher PJ;Lambe EK
乙酰胆碱对前额叶皮质的刺激对注意力至关重要；然而，其影响大脑内注意通路的细胞机制尚不清楚。前额叶皮质VI层的锥体神经元被认为在这一过程中起着重要作用，因为它们被乙酰胆碱兴奋，并为丘脑提供反馈投射的主要来源。在这里，我们利用全细胞电生理学证明了相对罕见的烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体α5亚单位能够有效地增强成年小鼠前额叶皮质脑片第VI层锥体神经元的烟碱电流。此外，使用五选一系列反应时测试的行为实验表明，尼古丁受体α5亚单位的存在也提高了成年小鼠在高要求条件下执行这一视觉注意任务的准确性。总之，这些发现证明了尼古丁受体α5亚单位在成人大脑回路中的一个新的和重要的作用，这是注意力表现所必需的。
Stimulation of the prefrontal cortex by acetylcholine is critical for attention; however, the cellular mechanisms underlying its influence on attention pathways within the brain are not well understood. Pyramidal neurons in layer VI of the prefrontal cortex are believed to play an important role in this process because they are excited by acetylcholine and provide a major source of feedback projections to the thalamus. Here, we show using whole-cell electrophysiology that the relatively rare α5 subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor powerfully enhances nicotinic currents in layer VI pyramidal neurons in prefrontal cortical brain slices from adult mice. In addition, behavioral experiments using the five-choice serial reaction time test show that the presence of the nicotinic receptor α5 subunit also increases the accuracy of adult mice on this visual attention task under highly demanding conditions. Together, these findings demonstrate a novel and important role for the nicotinic receptor α5 subunit in adult brain circuitry required for attentional performance.