Arousal increases neural gain via the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system in younger adults but not in older adults

Lee, T.-H., Greening, S. G., Ueno, T., Clewett, D., Ponzio, A., Sakaki, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1993-5765 and Mather, M. (2018) Arousal increases neural gain via the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system in younger adults but not in older adults. Nature Human Behaviour, 2 (5). pp. 356-366. ISSN 2397-3374 doi: 10.1038/s41562-018-0344-1

Abstract/Summary

In younger adults, arousal amplifies attentional focus to the most salient or goal-relevant information while suppressing other information. A computational model of how the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system can implement this increased selectivity under arousal and an fMRI study comparing how arousal affects younger and older adults’ processing indicate that the amplification of salient stimuli and the suppression of non-salient stimuli are separate processes, with aging affecting suppression without impacting amplification under arousal. In the fMRI study, arousal increased processing of salient stimuli and decreased processing of non-salient stimuli for younger adults. In contrast, for older adults, arousal increased processing of both low and high salience stimuli, generally increasing excitatory responses to visual stimuli. Older adults also showed decline in LC functional connectivity with frontoparietal networks that coordinate attentional selectivity. Thus, among older adults, arousal increases the potential for distraction from non-salient stimuli.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/76954
Identification Number/DOI	10.1038/s41562-018-0344-1
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Ageing Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Psychopathology and Affective Neuroscience
Publisher	Nature
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