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Electrophysiological recordings in rats performing the sustained attention task
Author(s) -
Edgerton Jeremy,
Neal Sarah,
Harvey Brian,
Kiss Tamás,
Grimwood Sarah
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.894.6
Subject(s) - local field potential , neuroscience , stimulus (psychology) , electrophysiology , psychology , cognition , brain activity and meditation , visual cortex , electroencephalography , task (project management) , audiology , medicine , cognitive psychology , management , economics
Cognitive impairments are associated with many brain disorders. Past efforts to develop treatments have relied heavily on rodent behavioral measures to assess drug efficacy, with little success. In response, efforts are underway to identify neural circuit activity patterns that underlie cognitive processes and that may provide more sensitive and predictive measures of drug efficacy. The goal of the present study was to begin characterizing the neural circuit activity related to directed visual attention in rats. We implanted recording electrodes into attention‐related brain areas of rats trained in the sustained attention task, and recorded local field potential (LFP) activity as the rats performed the task. The LFPs were modulated by task events including visual stimuli, lever pressing, and reward delivery, with a strong beta frequency oscillation appearing in multiple sites in response to the reward. Visual evoked potentials in posterior parietal cortex were much larger in correct trials than in error trials, suggesting that this signal is indicative of visual stimulus detection. These results support the continued development of LFP recordings in behaving rodents as a potential means to evaluate new therapeutic compounds for CNS disorders. The study was funded by Pfizer Inc.