Review
Cholinergic and noradrenergic modulation of thalamocortical processing

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Abstract

During periods of drowsiness and synchronized sleep, thalamocortical neuronal activity is dominated by rhythmic oscillations. The shift to waking and attentiveness is associated with an abolition of these rhythms and a marked increase in neuronal responsiveness to synaptic inputs. These shifts in thalamocortical processing are controlled by ascending modulatory neurotransmitter systems of which the cholinergic and noradrenergic components play a key role. By altering the amplitude of specialized potassium currents in thalamic and cortical neurons, acetylcholine and norepinephrine can block the generation of thalamocortical rhythms and promote a state of excitability that is consistent with cognition.

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      In particular, modulations of alpha-oscillatory activity, mediated via a thalamocortical circuit, temporarily disengage task-irrelevant brain areas and thus facilitate the flexible gating of information [3,5,13]. Hence, because the prefrontal cortex provides input to the LC [27,28], noradrenergic influences on thalamic pacemakers grant prefrontal–brainstem circuits control over cortical alpha synchronization [5,9,25,87]. Prefrontal LC activation may thus subserve the selective processing of prioritized information by dynamically adjusting the balance of cortical excitation and inhibition via alpha synchronization [6–8,10].

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