Anterior cingulate cortex inactivation impairs rodent visual selective attention and prospective memory.

Abstract

Previous studies showed that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a role in selective visual attention. The current study further examined the role of the ACC in attention using a visual cuing task with task-relevant and task-irrelevant stimuli. On every trial, two stimuli were presented on the touchscreen; one was task-relevant and the other was task-irrelevant. Rats were trained to attend to the task-relevant stimulus over the task-irrelevant stimulus to determine which side of the touchscreen should be selected for reward. After the rats were well-trained, cannulae targeting the ACC were implanted bilaterally for infusions of PBS or muscimol. When the ACC was functionally intact, high task performance was correlated with the anticipatory touches toward the reward; rats touched the stimulus proximal to the correct side more often, regardless of its task-relevancy. Analysis of the pre-surgery training data showed that rats developed anticipatory touches during training. Linear discriminant analyses of the touches also showed that the touches predict rats’ choices in trials. With muscimol infusions, choice accuracy was impaired and the anticipatory touches toward the correct response location were less frequent. A control experiment, in which there were no irrelevant stimuli, showed no effects of ACC inactivation on choice accuracy or anticipatory touches. These results indicate that the rat ACC plays a critical role in reducing distraction from irrelevant stimuli as well as in guiding attention toward the goal locations.

Dorsal hippocampus is necessary for visual categorization in rats

“…The overall results indicate that the degree of touch separation reflected category learning. However, these touches on the cue stimuli were quantitatively as well as qualitatively different from each other; the later touches were more strongly anticipatory of the location that would later be associated with reward than the earlier ones (see also Kim et al, ).…”

“…Specific handling and shaping procedures were described in a previous publication (Kim, Wasserman, Castro, & Freeman, 2016). Briefly, all rats were individually handled daily under food restriction after a 1-week acclimation period.…”

An increase in spontaneous activity mediates visual habituation

“…Therefore, a decreased input from the cingulate cortex can boost pyramidal neuron activity in V1 via disinhibition. Furthermore, the cingulate is a key regulator of visual attention [16][17][18][19][20] , and thereby a decrease in attention could increase spontaneous activity in V1. Second, how could an increase in spontaneous activity result in habituation?…”

Chemogenetic silencing of neurons in the mouse anterior cingulate area modulates neuronal activity and functional connectivity

“…The anterior cingulate area (ACA) is an integral part of the prefrontal cortex and has been implicated in several cognitive functions including attention [1-3], remote memory [4, 5], motion planning and execution [6] and processing of pain [7]. Accumulating evidence suggests that the cytoarchitecture and functional role of the ACA is similar across different species including humans, non-human primates and rodents [8-11].…”