Grant S J, Aston-Jones G, Redmond D E
Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510.
Brain Res Bull. 1988 Sep;21(3):401-10. doi: 10.1016/0361-9230(88)90152-9.
Single and multiple unit recordings were obtained from locus coeruleus (LC) of unanesthetized, chair-restrained monkeys during presentation of a range of sensory stimuli. Tonic activity was higher during alertness or agitation than during behavioral inattentiveness and drowsiness. Low-level, simple auditory stimuli elicited no response, while more intense stimuli evoked phasic discharges in LC activity. The most pronounced responses were elicited by aversive air puffs and by multi-modal naturalistic stimuli such as interactions with the experimenter. The results suggest that sensory stimuli effective in eliciting LC discharge have specific stimulus attributes. It is proposed that the LC is tuned to specifically respond to stimuli which are conspicuous to that species: stimuli which by their physical or behavioral properties evoke a change in the focus of attention. The LC response would thereby contribute to adaptive behavioral responses to such unexpected imperative stimuli. This hypothesis is consistent with earlier suggestions that the LC contributes to behavioral functions such as vigilance and alarm and provides a rigorous framework for future experiments.
在一系列感觉刺激呈现期间，从未麻醉、坐在椅子上受约束的猴子的蓝斑（LC）获取了单单位和多单位记录。与行为上的注意力不集中和嗜睡相比，警觉或激动时的紧张性活动更高。低强度、简单的听觉刺激未引发反应，而更强的刺激则诱发了LC活动的相位性放电。最明显的反应是由厌恶气流和多模式自然主义刺激（如与实验者的互动）引发的。结果表明，有效引发LC放电的感觉刺激具有特定的刺激属性。有人提出，LC被调整为专门对该物种明显的刺激做出反应：这些刺激通过其物理或行为特性引起注意力焦点的变化。因此，LC反应将有助于对这种意外的紧急刺激做出适应性行为反应。这一假设与早期关于LC有助于诸如警觉和警报等行为功能的观点一致，并为未来的实验提供了一个严谨的框架。
