A Pressure Injection System for Investigating the Neuropharmacology of Information Processing in Awake Behaving Macaque Monkey Cortex

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Abstract

The top-down modulation of feed-forward cortical information processing is functionally important for many cognitive processes, including the modulation of sensory information processing by attention. However, little is known about which neurotransmitter systems are involved in such modulations. A practical way to address this question is to combine single-cell recording with local and temporary neuropharmacological manipulation in a suitable animal model. Here we demonstrate a technique combining acute single-cell recordings with the injection of neuropharmacological agents in the direct vicinity of the recording electrode. The video shows the preparation of the pressure injection/recording system, including preparation of the substance to be injected. We show a rhesus monkey performing a visual attention task and the procedure of single-unit recording with block-wise pharmacological manipulations.

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Most cited references 18

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Feature-based attention influences motion processing gain in macaque visual cortex.

S Treue, J Martínez Trujillo (1999)

Changes in neural responses based on spatial attention have been demonstrated in many areas of visual cortex, indicating that the neural correlate of attention is an enhanced response to stimuli at an attended location and reduced responses to stimuli elsewhere. Here we demonstrate non-spatial, feature-based attentional modulation of visual motion processing, and show that attention increases the gain of direction-selective neurons in visual cortical area MT without narrowing the direction-tuning curves. These findings place important constraints on the neural mechanisms of attention and we propose to unify the effects of spatial location, direction of motion and other features of the attended stimuli in a 'feature similarity gain model' of attention.

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Feature-based attention increases the selectivity of population responses in primate visual cortex.

Julio Martinez-Trujillo, Stefan Treue (2004)

Attending to the spatial location or to nonspatial features of visual stimuli can modulate neuronal responses in primate visual cortex. The modulation by spatial attention changes the gain of sensory neurons and strengthens the representation of attended locations without changing neuronal selectivities such as directionality, i.e., the ratio of responses to preferred and anti-preferred directions of motion. Whether feature-based attention acts in a similar manner is unknown. To clarify this issue, we recorded the responses of 135 direction-selective neurons in the middle temporal area (MT) of two macaques to an unattended moving random dot pattern (the distractor) positioned inside a neuron's receptive field while the animals attended to a second moving pattern positioned in the opposite hemifield. Responses to different directions of the distractor were modulated by the same factor (approximately 12%) as long as the attended direction remained unchanged. On the other hand, systematically changing the attended direction from a neuron's preferred to its anti-preferred direction caused a systematic change of the attentional modulation from an enhancement to a suppression, increasing directionality by about 20%. The results show that (1) feature-based attention exerts a multiplicative modulation upon neuronal responses and that the strength of this modulation depends on the similarity between the attended feature and the cell's preferred feature, in line with the feature-similarity gain model, and (2) at the level of the neuronal population, feature-based attention increases the selectivity for attended features by increasing the responses of neurons preferring this feature value while decreasing responses of neurons tuned to the opposite feature value.

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The role of neuromodulators in selective attention.

Behrad Noudoost, Tirin Moore (2011)

Several classes of neurotransmitters exert modulatory effects on a broad and diverse population of neurons throughout the brain. Some of these neuromodulators, especially acetylcholine and dopamine, have long been implicated in the neural control of selective attention. We review recent evidence and evolving ideas about the importance of these neuromodulatory systems in attention, particularly visual selective attention. We conclude that, although our understanding of their role in the neural circuitry of selective attention remains rudimentary, recent research has begun to suggest unique contributions of neuromodulators to different forms of attention, such as bottom-up and top-down attention. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Vis Exp

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Vis Exp

Journal ID (publisher-id): JoVE

Title: Journal of Visualized Experiments : JoVE

Publisher: MyJove Corporation

ISSN (Electronic): 1940-087X

Publication date Collection: 2016

Publication date (Electronic): 14 March 2016

Publication date PMC-release: 14 March 2016

Issue: 109

Electronic Location Identifier: 53724

Affiliations

¹Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center

²Faculty of Biology and Psychology, Goettingen University

Author notes

Correspondence to: Vera K. Veith at VVeith@ 123456dpz.eu

Article

Publisher ID: 53724

DOI: 10.3791/53724

PMC ID: 4828981

PubMed ID: 27023110

SO-VID: 59fec96c-e518-46bc-b456-57e9583cb061

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

A Pressure Injection System for Investigating the Neuropharmacology of Information Processing in Awake Behaving Macaque Monkey Cortex

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Abstract

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Most cited references 18

Feature-based attention influences motion processing gain in macaque visual cortex.

Feature-based attention increases the selectivity of population responses in primate visual cortex.

The role of neuromodulators in selective attention.

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