Top-down control of sustained attention by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) - locus coeruleus (LC) circuit during the rodent continuous performance test (rCPT).

ABSTRACT: The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a pivotal role in attention by exerting top-down control to allocate cognitive resources toward behaviorally relevant stimuli based on learned context and expectations. mPFC neurons project to multiple cortical and subcortical regions, including the locus coeruleus (LC)-the brain's primary source of norepinephrine (NE). The mPFC also receives inputs from the LC, which release NE to modulate mPFC neuronal activity and downstream cellular signaling. While enhanced functional connectivity between the mPFC and LC in mice during sustained attention tasks suggest an important role for the mPFC-LC circuit, functional evidence directly implicating this circuit in attention is lacking. Here, we investigated the role of the mPFC-LC circuit in attention by co

SUBMITTER: Rehg JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12710799 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature