Cholinergic modulation of the medial prefrontal cortex: the role of nicotinic receptors in attention and regulation of neuronal activity

Acetylcholine (ACh) release in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is crucial for normal cognitive performance. Despite the fact that many have studied how ACh affects neuronal processing in the mPFC and thereby influences attention behavior, there is still a lot unknown about how this occurs. Here...

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Main Authors: Bloem, Bernard, Poorthuis, Rogier B., Mansvelder, Huibert D.
Other Authors: McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Frontiers Research Foundation 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88054
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0930-580X
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author Bloem, Bernard
Poorthuis, Rogier B.
Mansvelder, Huibert D.
author2 McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
author_facet McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Bloem, Bernard
Poorthuis, Rogier B.
Mansvelder, Huibert D.
author_sort Bloem, Bernard
collection MIT
description Acetylcholine (ACh) release in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is crucial for normal cognitive performance. Despite the fact that many have studied how ACh affects neuronal processing in the mPFC and thereby influences attention behavior, there is still a lot unknown about how this occurs. Here we will review the evidence that cholinergic modulation of the mPFC plays a role in attention and we will summarize the current knowledge about the role between ACh receptors (AChRs) and behavior and how ACh receptor activation changes processing in the cortical microcircuitry. Recent evidence implicates fast phasic release of ACh in cue detection and attention. This review will focus mainly on the fast ionotropic nicotinic receptors and less on the metabotropic muscarinic receptors. Finally, we will review limitations of the existing studies and address how innovative technologies might push the field forward in order to gain understanding into the relation between ACh, neuronal activity and behavior.
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spelling mit-1721.1/880542022-10-01T05:11:04Z Cholinergic modulation of the medial prefrontal cortex: the role of nicotinic receptors in attention and regulation of neuronal activity Bloem, Bernard Poorthuis, Rogier B. Mansvelder, Huibert D. McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Bloem, Bernard Acetylcholine (ACh) release in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is crucial for normal cognitive performance. Despite the fact that many have studied how ACh affects neuronal processing in the mPFC and thereby influences attention behavior, there is still a lot unknown about how this occurs. Here we will review the evidence that cholinergic modulation of the mPFC plays a role in attention and we will summarize the current knowledge about the role between ACh receptors (AChRs) and behavior and how ACh receptor activation changes processing in the cortical microcircuitry. Recent evidence implicates fast phasic release of ACh in cue detection and attention. This review will focus mainly on the fast ionotropic nicotinic receptors and less on the metabotropic muscarinic receptors. Finally, we will review limitations of the existing studies and address how innovative technologies might push the field forward in order to gain understanding into the relation between ACh, neuronal activity and behavior. European Research Council (ERC StG “BrainSignals”) European Union (Dutch Fund for Economic Structure Reinforcement (FES, 0908 “NeuroBasic PharmaPhenomics project”)) European Union (7th Framework Programme (HEALTH-F2-2009-242167 ‘SynSys’)) 2014-06-20T17:49:19Z 2014-06-20T17:49:19Z 2014-03 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1662-5110 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88054 Bloem, Bernard, Rogier B. Poorthuis, and Huibert D. Mansvelder. “Cholinergic Modulation of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex: The Role of Nicotinic Receptors in Attention and Regulation of Neuronal Activity.” Front. Neural Circuits 8 (March 11, 2014). https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0930-580X en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2014.00017 Frontiers in Neural Circuits Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Frontiers Research Foundation Frontiers Research Foundation
spellingShingle Bloem, Bernard
Poorthuis, Rogier B.
Mansvelder, Huibert D.
Cholinergic modulation of the medial prefrontal cortex: the role of nicotinic receptors in attention and regulation of neuronal activity
title Cholinergic modulation of the medial prefrontal cortex: the role of nicotinic receptors in attention and regulation of neuronal activity
title_full Cholinergic modulation of the medial prefrontal cortex: the role of nicotinic receptors in attention and regulation of neuronal activity
title_fullStr Cholinergic modulation of the medial prefrontal cortex: the role of nicotinic receptors in attention and regulation of neuronal activity
title_full_unstemmed Cholinergic modulation of the medial prefrontal cortex: the role of nicotinic receptors in attention and regulation of neuronal activity
title_short Cholinergic modulation of the medial prefrontal cortex: the role of nicotinic receptors in attention and regulation of neuronal activity
title_sort cholinergic modulation of the medial prefrontal cortex the role of nicotinic receptors in attention and regulation of neuronal activity
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88054
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0930-580X
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