TY - JOUR
T1 - Cholinergic modulation of working memory activity in primate prefrontal cortex
AU - Zhou, Xin
AU - Qi, Xue Lian
AU - Douglas, Kristy
AU - Palaninathan, Kathini
AU - Kang, Hyun Sug
AU - Buccafusco, Jerry J.
AU - Blake, David Trumbull
AU - Constantinidis, Christos
PY - 2011/11
Y1 - 2011/11
N2 - The prefrontal cortex, a cortical area essential for working memory and higher cognitive functions, is modulated by a number of neurotransmitter systems, including acetylcholine; however, the impact of cholinergic transmission on prefrontal activity is not well understood. We relied on systemic administration of a muscarinic receptor antagonist, scopolamine, to investigate the role of acetylcholine on primate prefrontal neuronal activity during execution of working memory tasks and recorded neuronal activity with chronic electrode arrays and single electrodes. Our results indicated a dose-dependent decrease in behavioral performance after scopolamine administration in all the working memory tasks we tested. The effect could not be accounted for by deficits in visual processing, eye movement responses, or attention, because the animals performed a visually guided saccade task virtually error free, and errors to distracting stimuli were not increased. Performance degradation under scopolamine was accompanied by decreased firing rate of the same cortical sites during the delay period of the task and decreased selectivity for the spatial location of the stimuli. These results demonstrate that muscarinic blockade impairs performance in working memory tasks and prefrontal activity mediating working memory.
AB - The prefrontal cortex, a cortical area essential for working memory and higher cognitive functions, is modulated by a number of neurotransmitter systems, including acetylcholine; however, the impact of cholinergic transmission on prefrontal activity is not well understood. We relied on systemic administration of a muscarinic receptor antagonist, scopolamine, to investigate the role of acetylcholine on primate prefrontal neuronal activity during execution of working memory tasks and recorded neuronal activity with chronic electrode arrays and single electrodes. Our results indicated a dose-dependent decrease in behavioral performance after scopolamine administration in all the working memory tasks we tested. The effect could not be accounted for by deficits in visual processing, eye movement responses, or attention, because the animals performed a visually guided saccade task virtually error free, and errors to distracting stimuli were not increased. Performance degradation under scopolamine was accompanied by decreased firing rate of the same cortical sites during the delay period of the task and decreased selectivity for the spatial location of the stimuli. These results demonstrate that muscarinic blockade impairs performance in working memory tasks and prefrontal activity mediating working memory.
KW - Monkey
KW - Neuron
KW - Persistent activity
KW - Principal sulcus
KW - Scopolamine
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U2 - 10.1152/jn.00148.2011
DO - 10.1152/jn.00148.2011
M3 - Article
C2 - 21795623
AN - SCOPUS:80755188039
SN - 0022-3077
VL - 106
SP - 2180
EP - 2188
JO - Journal of Neurophysiology
JF - Journal of Neurophysiology
IS - 5
ER -