Publication Date:
2011-05-17
Description:
The prefrontal cortex is thought to modulate sensory signals in posterior cortices during top-down attention, but little is known about the underlying neural circuitry. Experimental and clinical evidence indicate that prefrontal dopamine has an important role in cognitive functions, acting predominantly through D1 receptors. Here we show that dopamine D1 receptors mediate prefrontal control of signals in the visual cortex of macaques (Macaca mulatta). We pharmacologically altered D1-receptor-mediated activity in the frontal eye field of the prefrontal cortex and measured the effect on the responses of neurons in area V4 of the visual cortex. This manipulation was sufficient to enhance the magnitude, the orientation selectivity and the reliability of V4 visual responses to an extent comparable with the known effects of top-down attention. The enhancement of V4 signals was restricted to neurons with response fields overlapping the part of visual space affected by the D1 receptor manipulation. Altering either D1- or D2-receptor-mediated frontal eye field activity increased saccadic target selection but the D2 receptor manipulation did not enhance V4 signals. Our results identify a role for D1 receptors in mediating the control of visual cortical signals by the prefrontal cortex and suggest how processing in sensory areas could be altered in mental disorders involving prefrontal dopamine.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117113/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉 〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117113/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Noudoost, Behrad -- Moore, Tirin -- EY014924/EY/NEI NIH HHS/ -- R01 EY014924/EY/NEI NIH HHS/ -- R01 EY014924-04/EY/NEI NIH HHS/ -- R01 EY014924-05/EY/NEI NIH HHS/ -- R01 EY014924-06A2/EY/NEI NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2011 May 15;474(7351):372-5. doi: 10.1038/nature09995.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Fairchild building, 299 Campus Drive West, Stanford, California 94305, USA. behrad@stanford.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21572439" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Benzazepines/pharmacology
;
Dopamine/*metabolism
;
GABA-A Receptor Agonists/pharmacology
;
Macaca mulatta/*physiology
;
Muscimol/pharmacology
;
Neurons/drug effects/physiology
;
Prefrontal Cortex/cytology/drug effects/*metabolism
;
Receptors, Dopamine D1/antagonists & inhibitors/metabolism
;
Saccades/physiology
;
Visual Cortex/cytology/drug effects/*physiology
;
Visual Perception/drug effects/*physiology
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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