Psychobiology Research Laboratories, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, NE2 4HH, UK.
Neuropharmacology. 2013 Jan;64:314-20. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2012.06.055. Epub 2012 Jul 6.
A large number of studies in both humans and experimental animals have demonstrated nicotine-induced improvements in various aspects of cognitive function, including attention and memory. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is thought to be critically involved in the modulation of executive function and these attentional processes are enhanced by nicotine acting at nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. The involvement of nicotinic processes on cognitive flexibility in particular has not been specifically investigated. The effects of nicotine on attentional flexibility were therefore evaluated using the rodent attentional set shifting task in rats. Nicotine injected both acutely and following repeated pre-exposure significantly improved both intradimensional and extradimensional set shifting performance in the task. Further investigation of the acute effects of nicotine demonstrated this improvement in attentional flexibility to be dose-dependent. These results implicate the nicotinic receptor system in the mediation of processes underlying cognitive flexibility and suggest that nicotine improves attentional flexibility in rats, both within and between perceptual dimensions of a compound stimulus. Nicotine-induced alterations in prefrontal circuitry may underlie these effects on cognitive flexibility. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled 'Cognitive Enhancers'.
大量的人类和实验动物研究表明，尼古丁可改善认知功能的各个方面，包括注意力和记忆力。前额叶皮层（PFC）被认为在调节执行功能方面起着关键作用，尼古丁通过作用于烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体增强了这些注意力过程。尼古丁在认知灵活性方面的作用特别没有被专门研究过。因此，使用大鼠的注意定势转移任务评估了尼古丁对注意力灵活性的影响。尼古丁急性注射和重复预暴露后均显著改善了任务中的内维度和外维度定势转移表现。对尼古丁急性作用的进一步研究表明，这种注意力灵活性的改善是剂量依赖性的。这些结果表明，烟碱受体系统参与了认知灵活性的中介过程，并表明尼古丁可改善大鼠的注意力灵活性，包括在复合刺激的知觉维度内和之间。尼古丁引起的前额叶电路改变可能是这些对认知灵活性影响的基础。本文是题为“认知增强剂”的特刊的一部分。
