Aging and the cholinergic system on attention and timing

衰老和胆碱能系统对注意力和计时的影响

• 批准号: 6843739
• 负责人: Kevin C.H. Pang
• 金额: $ 20.43万
• 依托单位: BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-02-15 至 2008-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6843739
• 关键词: Aging; cholinergic; system; attention; timing

EXCEED THE SPACE PROVIDED. The elderly tend to be afflicted with impairments of several cognitive processes, including a decreased ability to pay attention, perform multiple tasks, and to time short intervals. Some models suggest a close interaction of timing and attention. The proposed studies hypothesize that attention and timing involve similar brain regions, in particular motor areas in the frontal lobe. In addition, it is predicted that dysfunction of the frontal motor areas is responsible for the age-related impairments in attention and timing. This dysfunction is due, in part, to the loss of cholinergic neurons of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM). The proposed studies do the following: 1) examine the effects of damage to motor cortex and NBM projections to motor cortex on attention and time estimation, 2) compare age-related changes of attention and timing in rats and humans, 3) examine the relationship between age-related loss of NBM neurons and impairments in attention and timing, and 4) investigate the effects of aging and brain damage on attention-related neuronal activity in motor cortex. The proposed behavioral studies with rats and humans involve similar versions of a simultaneous temporal processing (STP) task. In the STP task, subjects' learn to associate auditory and visual cues with short and long fixed time intervals, and are then tested on their ability to produce/estimate this time interval under different attentional demands. In a focused attention condition, only one cue is presented to subjects. In a divided attention condition, both cues are presented and must be attended to in order to respond correctly. The focused attention condition serves as a baseline measure of performance. The central empirical question concerns how aging and lesions (in rats) affect timing performance in divided attention conditions, relative to focused attention conditions. Model fits using scalar-expectance theory facilitate comparison between the human and rat behavioral data and potentially provide a functinoal interpretation of the effects of aging and lesions on focused and divided attention. Overall, the studies in this proposal will enhance our knowledge of the brain systems participating in attention and timing. Importantly, new information will be revealed that will elucidate the neural mechanisms responsible for age-related impairments in attention and timing. This new knowledge will provide directions for the development of treatments. PERFORMANCE SITE ========================================Section End===========================================

超过提供的空间。老年人往往会受到几个认知过程的损害，包括注意力的能力降低，执行多个任务以及时间间隔。一些模型暗示了时间和注意力的紧密相互作用。拟议的研究假设注意力和时机涉及相似的大脑区域，特别是额叶中的运动区域。此外，据预测，额叶运动区域的功能障碍导致与年龄相关的注意力和时机障碍。这种功能障碍部分归因于基底核细胞核（NBM）的胆碱能神经元的丧失。拟议的研究进行以下操作：1）检查对运动皮层的损害对运动皮层的损害对注意力和时间估计的影响，2）比较大鼠和人类的注意力相关的变化和时间的关注变化，3）检查NBM神经元的年龄损失与注意力和时间损害的NBM神经元的损失，以及4）对运动的效果和脑部的影响，并在运动中造成了a型和精神损害的效果。提出的对大鼠和人类的行为研究涉及同时的时间处理（STP）任务的类似版本。在STP任务中，受试者学会将听觉和视觉线索与短而长的固定时间间隔相关联，然后在不同注意力需求下生产/估计此时间间隔的能力进行测试。在集中注意力条件下，仅向受试者提供一个提示。在分裂的注意力条件下，提出了两个提示，必须参与才能正确做出响应。集中注意力条件是性能的基线度量。核心经验问题涉及相对于集中注意力条件，衰老和病变（在大鼠中）如何影响注意力条件下的时间表现。使用标量预测理论拟合模型，促进了人与大鼠行为数据之间的比较，并有可能对衰老和病变对集中和分裂注意力的影响进行功能解释。总体而言，该提案中的研究将增强我们对参与注意力和时机的大脑系统的了解。重要的是，将揭示新信息，将阐明导致注意力和时间上与年龄相关的障碍的神经机制。这些新知识将为开发治疗提供指导。表演站点=============================================================================================