Effects of ibotenic acid-induced loss of neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex of rats on behavioral vigilance: evidence for executive dysfunction

Abstract

Rats were trained in a previously validated task for the assessment of sustained attention, or vigilance. This task required the animals to discriminate between signals of variable lengths and non-signal events by making an appropriate lever press. The performance of sham-lesioned animals in this task was characterized by a signal-length dependent number of hits. Also, approximately 70 percent of the non-signals were correctly rejected. Ibotenic acid-induced lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex decreased the relative number of hits and correct rejections and, in essence, resulted in random lever selection. The lesion did not affect the number of omissions or side bias. Furthermore, the performance of lesioned animals was insensitive to the detrimental effects of distractors. The effects of the lesions do not support an interpretation in terms of sustained attention. Rather, the pattern of the lesioned animals' performance is speculated to reveal a fundamental disruption of decisional processes, reminiscent of the executive dysfunctions observed in patients with damage to ventromedial prefrontal areas or with schizophrenia.

Developmental disruption of perineuronal nets in the medial prefrontal cortex after maternal immune activation

“…The medial PFC is implicated in cognitive functions related to schizophrenia, including working memory, attentional control, sensorimotor gating, and behavioural flexibility565758. PolyI:C affected offspring have deficits in tests of these constructs, including object recognition tasks of working memory, set-shifting tasks of behavioural flexibility, and prepulse inhibition of sensorimotor gating101259606162.…”

CNTRICS final animal model task selection: Control of attention

“…Older studies using the SAT have been used to characterize the role of acetylcholine and catecholamine systems and other variables (e.g., gonadal steroids) in signal detection and vigilance (Briand et al, 2008; McGaughy & Sarter 1995, 1998, 1999; McGaughy et al, 1996; 1997,1999, 2000; Turchi et al,1995, 1996; Turchi & Sarter 2001a,b; Himmelheber et al 2000a,b, 2001; Holley et al, 1995; Miner et al, 1997, 1999; Gill et al, 2000; Burk et al, 2001, 2002; Nelson et al, 2002; Arnold et al 2002; Broussard et al 2009; Gritton et al, 2009; St. Peters et al 2011b.…”

Psychopharmacological approaches to modulating attention in the five-choice serial reaction time task: implications for schizophrenia

“…Effects of fronto-striatal lesions and testing effects of glutamatergic agents Attentional deficits in schizophrenia have been consistently associated with frontal dysfunction which can readily be investigated in rats, for example, by excitotoxic lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) (Muir et al 1996a;Miner et al 1997;Granon et al 1998;Birrell and Brown 2000). Lesions of the mPFC that include the dorsal pre-genual anterior cingulate cortex (area Cg1), medial prelimbic cortex (PrL), and sometimes the ventral infralimbic cortex (IL), produce profound deficits in the 5CSRTT.…”