Abstract
Emotionally charged distracters delay timing behavior. Increasing catecholamine levels within the prelimbic cortex has beneficial effects on timing by decreasing the delay after aversive distracters. We examined whether increasing catecholamine levels within the prelimbic cortex also protects against the deleterious timing delays caused by novel distracters or by familiar appetitive distracters. Rats were trained in a peak-interval procedure and tested in trials with either a novel (unreinforced) distracter, a familiar appetitive (food-reinforced) distracter, or no distracter after being locally infused within the prelimbic cortex with catecholamine reuptake blocker nomifensine. Prelimbic infusion of nomifensine did not alter timing accuracy and precision. However, it increased the delay caused by novel distracters in an inverted-U dose-dependent manner, while being ineffective for appetitive distracters. Together with previous data, these results suggest that catecholaminergic modulation of prelimbic top-down attentional control of interval timing varies with distracter’s valence: prelimbic catecholamines increase attentional control when presented with familiar aversive distracters, have no effect on familiar neutral or familiar appetitive distracters, and decrease it when presented with novel distracters. These findings detail complex interactions between catecholaminergic modulation of attention to timing and nontemporal properties of stimuli, which should be considered when developing therapeutic methods for attentional or affective disorders.
Highlights
Time estimation is critical for human and animal survival
To confirm that Appetitive rats conditioned to the noise stimulus, the response rates and number the appetitive noise conditioning progressed, the response rate on the were nontiming lever of rewards received during the appetitive noise training conditioning analyzed
Our study revealed a double-dissociation of the effect of prelimbic cortex (PrL) catecholamine reuptake blockade on timing between trials with or without distracters and between familiar appetitively-conditioned distracters (Appetitive group) or novel distracters (Novel group)
Summary
Time estimation is critical for human and animal survival. The anticipation of an approaching car allows a pedestrian or an animal to know when it is safe to cross. Interval timing—perception of time within the seconds-to-minutes range [1]—is thought to underlie adaptive behaviors such as action, decision making, and rate calculation [2,3,4]. In interval timing tasks, such as the peak-interval procedure, subjects are trained to respond to a particular time criterion when reward is expected. In these procedures, timing can be interrupted by task-irrelevant distracters, such as auditory stimuli, which results in a delay in responding [8,9,10]
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.