Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
Graduate School of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Sci Rep. 2017 Feb 23;7:43101. doi: 10.1038/srep43101.
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has long been thought to regulate conflict between an object of attention and distractors during goal-directed sustained attention. However, it is unclear whether ACC serves to sustained attention itself. Here, we developed a task in which the time course of sustained attention could be controlled in rats. Then, using pharmacological lesion experiments, we employed it to assess function of ACC in sustained attention. We then recorded neuronal activity in ACC using multichannel extracellular recording techniques and identified specific ACC neurons persistently activated during the period of attention. Further experiments showed that target modality had minimal influence on the neuronal activity, and distracting external sensory input during the attention period did not perturb persistent neuronal activity. Additionally, minimal trial-to-trial variability in neuronal activity observed during sustained attention supports a role for ACC neurons in that behavior. Therefore, we conclude that the ACC neuronal activity correlates with sustained attention.
扣带前回（ACC）长期以来被认为在目标导向的持续注意过程中调节注意力对象与分心物之间的冲突。然而，ACC 是否负责持续注意本身尚不清楚。在这里，我们开发了一种可以在大鼠中控制持续注意时间进程的任务。然后，我们使用药理学损伤实验来评估 ACC 在持续注意中的功能。我们使用多通道细胞外记录技术在 ACC 中记录神经元活动，并鉴定出在注意期间持续激活的特定 ACC 神经元。进一步的实验表明，目标模态对神经元活动的影响最小，并且在注意期间的外部感官输入干扰不会扰乱持续的神经元活动。此外，在持续注意期间观察到的神经元活动中最小的试验间变异性支持 ACC 神经元在该行为中的作用。因此，我们得出结论，ACC 神经元活动与持续注意相关。
