Differentiation of rodent behavioral phenotypes and methylphenidate action in sustained and flexible attention tasks.
Differentiation of rodent behavioral phenotypes and methylphenidate action in sustained and flexible attention tasks.
复制标题
啮齿类动物行为表型的分化和哌甲酯在持续灵活的注意力任务中的作用。
DOI：
10.1016/j.brainres.2015.11.039
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发表时间：
2016
期刊：
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Waterhouse,BarryD
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chu,Richard;Shumsky,Jed;Waterhouse,BarryD
Methyphenidate (MPH) is the primary drug treatment of choice for ADHD. It is also frequently used off-label as a cognitive enhancer by otherwise healthy individuals from all age groups and walks of life. Military personnel, students, and health professionals use MPH illicitly to increase attention and improve workplace performance over extended periods of work activity. Despite the frequency of its use, the efficacy of MPH to enhance cognitive function across individuals and in a variety of circumstances is not well characterized. We sought to better understand MPH׳s cognitive enhancing properties in two different rodent models of attention. We found that MPH could enhance performance in a sustained attention task, but that its effects in this test were subject dependent. More specifically, MPH increased attention in low baseline performing rats but had little to no effect on high performing rats. MPH exerted a similar subject specific effect in a test of flexible attention, i.e. the attention set shifting task. In this test MPH increased behavioral flexibility in animals with poor flexibility but impaired performance in more flexible animals. Overall, our results indicate that the effects of MPH are subject-specific and depend on the baseline level of performance. Furthermore, good performance in in the sustained attention task was correlated with good performance in the flexible attention task; i.e. animals with better vigilance exhibited greater behavioral flexibility. The findings are discussed in terms of potential neurobiological substrates, in particular noradrenergic mechanisms, that might underlie subject specific performance and subject specific responses to MPH.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Noradrenergic System.
