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The Journal of Neuroscience, September 1, 2000, 20(17):6701-6706
Lesions of the Amygdala Central Nucleus Alter Performance on a
Selective Attention Task
Peter C.
Holland1,
Jung-Soo
Han2, and
Michela
Gallagher2
1 Department of Psychology, Duke University, Durham,
North Carolina, 27708, and 2 Department of Psychology,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
Previous studies showed a role for the amygdala central nucleus
(CN) in attentional processing during the acquisition of Pavlovian associations. Both the acquisition of conditioned orienting responses and the surprise-induced enhancement in the ability of conditioned stimuli to enter into new associations depend on the integrity of CN.
In this experiment, the role of CN in the performance of a well-learned
selective attention task was examined. Rats with ibotenic acid lesions
of CN and control rats first learned a discrete-trial, multiple-choice
reaction time task. On each trial, after a constant-duration ready
signal, the rats were required to poke their noses into one of three
ports, guided by the brief illumination of one of those ports. Rats
with CN lesions were slower to acquire the task than control rats but
showed equivalent asymptotic sustained performance. Subsequent
attentional challenges, which included reducing the duration of the
port illumination and varying the duration of the ready signal, had
greater impact on the performance of lesioned than control rats. These
data resemble those reported from similar tasks after damage to the
basal forebrain (BF) system. Together with earlier findings, these data
support a role for CN in modulating visuospatial attention in action as
well as in the acquisition of associations, perhaps by way of its
projections to BF cholinergic systems.
Key words:
amygdala; central nucleus; selective attention; basal
forebrain cholinergic system; reaction time; rats
Copyright © 2000 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/00/20176701-06$05.00/0
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