Normalization and the Cholinergic Microcircuit: A Unified Basis for Attention
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2018
Journal
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Volume
22
Issue
5
First Page
422
Last Page
437
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1016/j.tics.2018.02.011
Abstract
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Attention alters three key properties of population neural activity – firing rate, rate variability, and shared variability between neurons. All three properties are well explained by a single canonical computation – normalization – that acts across hierarchically integrated brain systems. Combining data from rodents and nonhuman primates, we argue that cortical cholinergic modulation originating from the basal forebrain closely mimics the effects of directed attention on these three properties of population neural activity. Cholinergic modulation of the cortical microcircuit underlying normalization may represent a key biological basis for the rapid and flexible changes in population neuronal coding that are required by directed attention.
Notes
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