Clark C R, Geffen G M, Geffen L B
Psychophysiology Laboratory, Flinders University of South Australia, Bedford Park.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 1987 Winter;11(4):341-52. doi: 10.1016/s0149-7634(87)80006-4.
One important function of the catecholamine innervation of the cerebral cortex may be the control of attention. Of particular interest are the catecholamine projections to the cerebral cortex from the reticular formation, namely the dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmentum of the midbrain and the noradrenergic neurons of the locus coeruleus in the upper pons. Animal studies implicate noradrenaline and dopamine in a wide range of attention-related behaviours involving search and exploratory activity, distractibility, response rate, discriminability and the switching of attention. Most human studies come from the clinical literature relating to schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and attention deficit disorder. An association has been claimed in each of these conditions between abnormal catecholamine activity (in particular dopamine) and attentional dysfunction. In particular, difficulty with the attachment of appropriate responses to environmental stimuli, akin to those observed in animals with lesions to central dopamine pathways, indicates a role for dopamine in response selection processes. Overall, the animal and human studies reviewed indicate a role for central noradrenaline and dopamine in the early and late processing of information, respectively.
大脑皮层儿茶酚胺神经支配的一个重要功能可能是对注意力的控制。特别值得关注的是从网状结构投射到大脑皮层的儿茶酚胺，即中脑腹侧被盖区的多巴胺能神经元和脑桥上段蓝斑核的去甲肾上腺素能神经元。动物研究表明，去甲肾上腺素和多巴胺参与了广泛的与注意力相关的行为，包括搜索和探索活动、注意力分散、反应速度、辨别能力以及注意力的转换。大多数人体研究来自与精神分裂症、帕金森病和注意力缺陷障碍相关的临床文献。在这些病症中，每一种都有人声称异常的儿茶酚胺活性（特别是多巴胺）与注意力功能障碍之间存在关联。特别是，难以将适当的反应与环境刺激相联系，类似于在中枢多巴胺通路受损的动物身上观察到的情况，这表明多巴胺在反应选择过程中发挥作用。总体而言，所综述的动物和人体研究表明，中枢去甲肾上腺素和多巴胺分别在信息的早期和晚期处理中发挥作用。
