Abstract
Attentional impairments are found in a range of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the development of procognitive enhancers to alleviate these impairments has been hindered by a lack of comprehensive hypotheses regarding the circuitry mediating the targeted attentional functions. Here we discuss the role of the cortical cholinergic system in mediating cue detection and attentional control and propose two target mechanisms for cognition enhancers: stimulation of prefrontal α4β2* nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) for the enhancement of cue detection and augmentation of tonic acetylcholine levels for the enhancement of attentional control. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled 'Cognitive Enhancers'.
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Attention / drug effects*
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Cholinergic Neurons / drug effects*
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Cholinergic Neurons / metabolism
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Cholinesterase Inhibitors / pharmacology
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Cholinesterase Inhibitors / therapeutic use
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Cognition Disorders / drug therapy
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Cognition Disorders / metabolism
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Cognition Disorders / prevention & control
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Humans
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Molecular Targeted Therapy
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Muscarinic Agonists / pharmacology
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Muscarinic Agonists / therapeutic use
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Nerve Tissue Proteins / agonists
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Nerve Tissue Proteins / antagonists & inhibitors
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Nerve Tissue Proteins / metabolism
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Nicotinic Agonists / pharmacology*
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Nicotinic Agonists / therapeutic use
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Nootropic Agents / pharmacology*
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Nootropic Agents / therapeutic use
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Performance-Enhancing Substances / pharmacology*
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Prefrontal Cortex / drug effects*
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Prefrontal Cortex / metabolism
Substances
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Cholinesterase Inhibitors
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Muscarinic Agonists
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Nerve Tissue Proteins
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Nicotinic Agonists
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Nootropic Agents
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Performance-Enhancing Substances