Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA.
Learn Mem. 2012 Oct 16;19(11):513-7. doi: 10.1101/lm.026302.112.
Working memory and attention are complex cognitive functions that are disrupted in several neuropsychiatric disorders. Mouse models of such human diseases are commonly subjected to maze-based tests that can neither distinguish between these cognitive functions nor isolate specific aspects of either function. Here, we have adapted a simple visual discrimination task, and by varying only the timing of events within the same task construct, we are able to measure independently the behavioral response to increasing attentional demand and increasing length of time that information must be maintained in working memory. We determined that mPFC lesions in mice impair attention but not working memory maintenance.
工作记忆和注意力是复杂的认知功能，在几种神经精神疾病中受到干扰。此类人类疾病的小鼠模型通常接受基于迷宫的测试，这些测试既不能区分这些认知功能，也不能分离出任何一种功能的特定方面。在这里，我们改编了一个简单的视觉辨别任务，通过在相同任务结构中仅改变事件的时间安排，我们能够独立测量对注意力需求增加和必须在工作记忆中保持的信息时间长度增加的行为反应。我们发现，小鼠的 mPFC 损伤会损害注意力，但不会损害工作记忆的维持。
