Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences (MICCN) and School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Neuron. 2018 Feb 21;97(4):769-785. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.01.008.
Attention is critical to high-level cognition and attention deficits are a hallmark of neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders. Although years of research indicates that distinct neuromodulators influence attentional control, a mechanistic account that traverses levels of analysis (cells, circuits, behavior) is missing. However, such an account is critical to guide the development of next-generation pharmacotherapies aimed at forestalling or remediating the global burden associated with disorders of attention. Here, we summarize current neuroscientific understanding of how attention affects single neurons and networks of neurons. We then review key results that have informed our understanding of how neuromodulation shapes these neuron and network properties and thereby enables the appropriate allocation of attention to relevant external or internal events. Finally, we highlight areas where we believe hypotheses can be formulated and tackled experimentally in the near future, thereby critically increasing our mechanistic understanding of how attention is implemented at the cellular and network levels.
注意力对高级认知至关重要，而注意力缺陷是神经和神经精神疾病的标志。尽管多年的研究表明，不同的神经调节剂会影响注意力控制，但缺少一个贯穿分析层面（细胞、回路、行为）的机制解释。然而，这种解释对于指导新一代旨在预防或治疗与注意力障碍相关的全球负担的药物治疗的发展至关重要。在这里，我们总结了当前神经科学对注意力如何影响单个神经元和神经元网络的理解。然后，我们回顾了一些关键的研究结果，这些结果使我们了解了神经调节如何塑造这些神经元和网络特性，从而能够将注意力适当地分配到相关的外部或内部事件上。最后，我们强调了我们认为在不久的将来可以在这些领域提出假说并进行实验研究的地方，从而极大地提高我们对注意力在细胞和网络水平上是如何实现的的机制理解。
