Catecholamines and attention I: Animal and clinical studies

doi:10.1016/S0149-7634(87)80006-4

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

Volume 11, Issue 4, Winter 1987, Pages 341-352

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-7634(87)80006-4 Get rights and content

One important function of the catecholamine innervation of the cerebral cortex may be the control of attention. Of particular interest are the catecholamine projections to the cerebral cortex from the reticular formation, namely the dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmentum of the midbrain and the noradrenergic neurons of the locus coeruleus in the upper pons. Animal studies implicate noradrenaline and dopamine in a wide range of attention-related behaviours involving search and exploratory activity, distractibility, response rate, discriminability and the switching of attention. Most human studies come from the clinical literature relating to schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and attention deficit disorder. An association has been claimed in each of these conditions between abnormal catecholamine activity (in particular dopamine) and attentional dysfunction. In particular, difficulty with the attachment of appropriate responses to environmental stimuli, akin to those observed in animals with lesions to central dopamine pathways, indicates a role for dopamine in response selection processes. Overall, the animal and human studies reviewed indicate a role for central noradrenaline and dopamine in the early and late processing of information, respectively.

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Catecholamines and attention I: Animal and clinical studies

Prog Neurobiol

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Brain Res

Brain Res

Behav Brain Res

Brain Res

Cortex

Neuroscience

J Neurol Sci

Neurosci Lett

Brain Res

J Psychiatr Res

Physiol Behav

Brain Res

Neuropsychologia

Eur J Pharmacol

Prog Neuropsychopharmacol

Brain Res

Reverse Stroop effect in the performance of schizophrenics

Percept Mot Skills

Spontaneous alternation and d-amphetamine

Psychonom Sci

Dichotic monitoring and focused versus divided attention in schizophrenia

Br J Clin Psychol

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

Dopamine-containing systems in the CNS

Central noradrenergic systems: physiology and pharmacology

Parkinson disease, dementia and Alzheimer disease: clinicopathological correlations

Ann Neurol

Parkinsonism: effects of L-dopa treatment on concept formation

Neurology

Stereotyped behavior in rats induced by phenylethylamine, dependence on dopamine and noradrenaline and possible relation to psychoses?

Cerveau isolé et physiologie du sommeil

CR Soc Biol (Paris)

Nouvelles reserches sur la méchanisme du sommeil

CR Soc Biol (Paris)

Neurological Anatomy in Relation to Clinical Medicine

Cognitive deficit caused by regional depletion of dopamine in prefrontal cortex of rhesus monkeys

Science

Neurophysiological aspects of the schizophrenic syndrome

Span of comprehension in acute schizophrenics: full report technique

J Abnorm Psychol

Eye movements in schizophrenics: a quantitative analysis

Biol Psychiatry

Attention in schizophrenia: an analysis of selectivity in the functional visual field

J Abnorm Psychol

Psychiatric disturbances in Parkinson's disease

Dis Nerv Syst

Hemi-parkinsonism: clinical, neuropsychological and tomographical studies

Cognitive and motor shifting aptitude disorder in Parkinson's disease

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry

Monoamines in the control of state-dependent cortical functions: evidence from studies in animals and humans

Neurol Neurobiol

Role of monoamine pathways in the control of attention: effects of methylphenidate and droperiol in normal adult humans

Psychopharmacology (Berlin)

Role of monoamine pathways in the control of attention: effects of clonidine and methylphenidate in normal adult humans

Psychopharmacology (Berlin)

The role of forebrain dopamine systems in amphetamine induced stereotyped behaviour in the rat

Psychopharmacologia

Schizophrenia: A Biophysical Perspective

Assessment of schizophrenia

Annu Rev Psychol

Impaired acquisition of a passive avoidance response after lesions induced in the locus coeruleus by 6-OH-dopamine

Nature