Usher M, Cohen J D, Servan-Schreiber D, Rajkowski J, Aston-Jones G
Department of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
Science. 1999 Jan 22;283(5401):549-54. doi: 10.1126/science.283.5401.549.
Noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) neurons were recorded in monkeys performing a visual discrimination task, and a computational model was developed addressing the role of the LC brain system in cognitive performance. Changes in spontaneous and stimulus-induced patterns of LC activity correlated closely with fluctuations in behavioral performance. The model explains these fluctuations in terms of changes in electrotonic coupling among LC neurons and predicts improved performance during epochs of high coupling and synchronized LC firing. Cross correlations of simultaneously recorded LC neurons confirmed this prediction, indicating that electrotonic coupling in LC may play an important role in attentional modulation and the regulation of goal-directed versus exploratory behaviors.
在执行视觉辨别任务的猴子身上记录了去甲肾上腺素能蓝斑（LC）神经元，并开发了一个计算模型来探讨LC脑系统在认知表现中的作用。LC活动的自发模式和刺激诱发模式的变化与行为表现的波动密切相关。该模型根据LC神经元之间电紧张耦合的变化来解释这些波动，并预测在高耦合和LC同步放电的时期表现会有所改善。同时记录的LC神经元的交叉相关性证实了这一预测，表明LC中的电紧张耦合可能在注意力调节以及目标导向行为与探索行为的调控中发挥重要作用。
