"What have we GANEd?" A theoretical construct to explain experimental evidence for noradrenergic regulation of sensory signal processing.

The GANE (glutamate amplifies noradrenergic effects) theory posits a mechanism for amplifying noradrenergic modulatory actions and enhancing the processing of high-priority sensory signals for immediate or future experience-guided action. This theoretical construct is thought provoking with respect to the central processing of high-priority versus low-priority stimuli, but it requires some refinement to account for physiological fluctuations in NE efflux as a function of naturally occurring transitions in behavioral state and the experimentally observed phenomena associated with noradrenergic regulation of sensory signal transfer.