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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Alexander Thiele
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
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.
Author(s): Thiele A, Bellgrove MA
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Neuron
Year: 2018
Volume: 97
Issue: 4
Pages: 769–785
Online publication date: 21/02/2018
Acceptance date: 21/02/2018
ISSN (print): 0896-6273
ISSN (electronic): 1097-4199
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.01.008
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.01.00
PubMed id: 29470969
