Alteration of brain noradrenergic activity in rhesus monkeys affects the alerting component of covert orienting
Alteration of brain noradrenergic activity in rhesus monkeys affects the alerting component of covert orienting
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DOI：
10.1007/s002130050351
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发表时间：
1997-08-01
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Marrocco, RT
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Witte, EA;Marrocco, RT
进行实验是为了阐明去甲肾上腺素能神经递质系统在唤醒和注意力定向中的作用。恒河猴被训练执行外周提示、隐蔽定向任务以获得果汁奖励，并测量它们对视觉刺激的手动反应时间（RT）。在秘密任务中比较了肠外注射α-2肾上腺素激动剂可乐定和胍法辛以及生理盐水的效果。我们评估了 1) 总体错误率，2) 有效和无效提示试验之间的 RT 差异（有效性效应），3) 中性和无提示试验之间的 RT 差异（警报效应），4) 目标位置（视野）和 5) 提示目标间隔。可乐定（以及较小程度上的胍法辛）产生的去甲肾上腺素水平的变化显着降低了警觉效果，并降低了对左视野刺激的反应时间，但没有改变有效性效果，表明去甲肾上腺素参与维持对外部线索的非空间、感觉准备状态，但不参与注意力焦点的转移。
Experiments were conducted to elucidate the role of the noradrenergic neurotransmitter system in arousal and the orienting of attention. Rhesus monkeys were trained to perform a peripherally cued, covert orienting task for juice reward, and their manual reaction times (RTs) to visual stimuli were measured. The effects of parenteral injections of the alpha-2 adrenergic agonists clonidine and guanfacine, and normal saline were compared on the covert task. We assessed 1) overall error rates, 2) the difference in RTs between validly and invalidly cued trials (validity effect), 3) the difference in RTs between neutral and no-cue trials (alerting effect), 4) target location (visual field), and 5) cue-target interval. Changes in noradrenaline levels produced by clonidine (and to a lesser extent guanfacine) significantly decreased the alerting effect, and lowered RTs to stimuli in the left visual field, but did not change the validity effect, suggesting that noradrenaline is involved in maintaining non-spatial, sensory readiness to external cues but not in the shifting of the attentional focus.