Neurobiological basis of age-related deficits in attentional shifting and monitoring

摘要 注意控制是指个体有选择地注意与行为相关的刺激并忽略与行为相关的刺激的能力。 与行为无关的刺激注意力控制至少有两个可分离的组成部分，转移和 监测，每一个都是由哺乳动物前额叶皮层中不同的神经网络驱动的。期间 在正常的老龄化中，注意力的转移和监测成分在人类中都受到损害， 改变对生活质量产生负面影响，因为许多基本技能的执行依赖于这些心理 流程.导致注意力控制受损的神经网络水平变化知之甚少。 这部分是由于目前缺乏能够提供具有上级空间和视觉特性的神经数据的动物模型。 时间分辨率，以澄清人类可用的功能成像和EEG数据。最近我们 实验室已经表明，年老的猕猴在需要完成的任务上表现不佳， 注意力控制的方式类似于老年人的注意力控制。这里提出的实验 测试猕猴背外侧前额叶皮层的抑制性神经元网络是 在正常老化过程中发生改变，导致注意力控制能力下降。慢性细胞外四极管 记录设备和新的行为范例将被用来跟踪行为和潜在的协变。 非人类灵长类动物的神经反应这些研究的结果有可能确定 特定的细胞成分受衰老的影响，引起注意力控制的下降，这是 人类的认知老化

Abstract Attentional control refers to an individual's ability to selectively attend to behaviorally relevant stimuli and ignore behaviorally irrelevant stimuli. There are at least two separable components to attentional control, shifting and monitoring, which are each driven by different neural networks in the mammalian prefrontal cortex. During normative aging, both the shifting and monitoring components of attention are impaired in humans, and these alterations negatively impact life quality since the execution of many basic skills is dependent on these mental processes. The neural network level changes that lead to impaired attentional control are poorly understood. This is in part due to the current lack of animal models that can provide neural data with superior spatial and temporal resolution to clarify the functional imaging and EEG data available in humans. Recently, our laboratory has shown that aged macaque monkeys experience performance deficits on tasks requiring attentional control in a manner similar to that which is noted in older humans. The experiments proposed here test the hypothesis that networks of inhibitory neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of macaques are altered during normative aging to give rise to declines in attentional control. Chronic extracellular tetrode recording devices and novel behavioral paradigms will be used to track covariation in behavior and underlying neural responses in the non-human primate. The results from these studies have the potential to identify specific cellular components impacted by aging that give rise to declines in attentional control, a hallmark of cognitive aging in humans.