Spike rate modulation of locus coeruleus neurons associated with visual spatial attention in monkeys

Spike rate modulation of locus coeruleus neurons associated with visual spatial attention in monkeys. We trained two rhesus monkeys to selectively attend one of two visual stimulus locations while performing a visual orientation change detection task. Once the animal fixated, two Gabor sample stimuli appeared for 200 ms, one in each hemifield. After a brief delay (200-300 ms), a Gabor test stimulus appeared in one of the locations. The monkey had to report whether the test stimulus had a different orientation than the sample that had appeared in that location by making a saccade to one of two colored saccade targets after the fixation spot went off. The locations of the saccade targets were interchanged randomly across trials. Spatially selective attention was controlled in blocks of trials by different reward sizes and by varying the test stimulus probability for the two locations. While the monkeys did the attention task, we recorded simultaneously from populations of LC neurons (monkey S, n = 229; monkey P, n = 185). Recorded neurons were classified as phasic responsive to visual stimulus (phasic, monkey S, n = 89/229; monkey P, n = 74/185), pre-stimulus fixation responsive (non-phasic, monkey S, n = 88/229; monkey P, n = 53/185) or saccade related (saccade, monkey S, n = 104/229; monkey P, n = 124/185).本数据集围绕猕猴蓝斑核（locus coeruleus）神经元锋电位发放率调制与视觉空间注意的关联展开。我们训练两只猕猴，使其在完成视觉朝向变化检测任务时，选择性注意两个视觉刺激位置中的一个。当猕猴完成注视后，两个Gabor光栅刺激（Gabor）分别在左右视觉半视野（hemifield）各呈现一次，持续时长为200毫秒。经过200~300毫秒的短暂延迟后，其中一个位置会呈现Gabor光栅测试刺激。注视点消失后，猕猴需通过眼跳（saccade）至两个彩色眼跳目标中的一个，报告该测试刺激与对应位置此前呈现的样本刺激的朝向是否存在差异。各试次中，眼跳目标的位置会随机互换。通过设置不同的奖励量级，并调整两个位置的测试刺激出现概率，在成组试次中对空间选择性注意的指向进行控制。猕猴执行注意任务期间，我们同时记录了两组蓝斑核神经元的活动（猕猴S：n=229；猕猴P：n=185）。记录到的神经元被分为三类：对视觉刺激产生位相反应的神经元（位相型：猕猴S：89/229；猕猴P：74/185）、刺激前注视相关反应的神经元（非位相型：猕猴S：88/229；猕猴P：53/185），以及与眼跳活动相关的神经元（眼跳型：猕猴S：104/229；猕猴P：124/185）。