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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Published inFrontiers in neural circuits Vol. 8; p. 17
Main Authors Bloem, Bernard, Poorthuis, Rogier B, Mansvelder, Huibert D
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 11.03.2014
Frontiers Media S.A
Subjects
Acetylcholine
Acetylcholine - metabolism
Acetylcholine receptors
Acetylcholine receptors (muscarinic)
Acetylcholine receptors (nicotinic)
Animals
Attention
Attention - physiology
Brain research
Cognitive ability
Humans
Medial prefrontal cortex
Memory
Metabotropic receptors
Neurons
Neurons - metabolism
Neurophysiology
Neuroscience
Neurosciences
nicotinic receptors
Prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal Cortex - metabolism
Receptor mechanisms
Receptors, Nicotinic - metabolism
Reviews
nicotinic receptors
attention
medial prefrontal cortex
acetylcholine
neurophysiology
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Summary: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.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ObjectType-Review-1
Reviewed by: Vinay V. Parikh, Temple University, USA; Craig Edward Brown, University of Victoria, Canada
Edited by: Evelyn K. Lambe, University of Toronto, Canada
This article was submitted to the journal Frontiers in Neural Circuits.
ISSN:1662-5110
1662-5110
DOI:10.3389/fncir.2014.00017