The Neuropsychopharmacology of Fronto-Executive Function: Monoaminergic Modulation

By Trevor W. Robbins, A. Arnsten. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 2009

946 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We review the modulatory effects of the catecholamine neurotransmitters noradrenaline and dopamine on prefrontal cortical function. The effects of pharmacologic manipulations of these systems, sometimes in comparison with the indoleamine serotonin (5-HT), on performance on a variety of tasks that tap working memory, attentional-set formation and shifting, reversal learning, and response inhibition are compared in rodents, nonhuman primates, and humans using, in a behavioral context, several techniques ranging from microiontophoresis and single-cell electrophysiological recording to pharmacologic functional magnetic resonance imaging. Dissociable effects of drugs and neurotoxins affecting these monoamine systems suggest new ways of conceptualizing state-dependent fronto-executive functions, with implications for understanding the molecular genetic basis of mental illness and its treatment.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5bfa8621ef0d4c854cc17305d81a5a6f04bf0c74

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

In Cognitive Neuroscience

Citations in the corpus

The roles of dopamine and noradrenaline in the pathophysiology and treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. (2011, background): “Noradrenaline projections originate primarily from neurons in the locus coeruleus and send projections to multiple regions, including the prefrontal cortices, which play a critical role in high-level cognitive functions that are often impaired in ADHD, such as working memory and inhibitory response ”
Cognitive dysfunction in psychiatric disorders: characteristics, causes and the quest for improved therapy (2012, background): “Like the amygdala, these key structures contain dense populations of GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid)-ergic interneurons and they communicate with each other — as well as with other territories controlling cognitive function — via glutamatergic projection”
Towards a glutamate hypothesis of depression (2011, background): “Therefore, while it is well-established that monoaminergic transmission has a primary role in the modulation of emotion and cognition (Pralong et al., 2002; Robbins and Arnsten, 2009), the time has come to recognize and posit that excitatory transmission plays a central role in mediating the complex”
Organisation of executive functions: Hemispheric asymmetries (2012, neutral): “…Bunge, 2004; Gazzaley et al., 2007; Vallesi & Crescentini, 2011), frontostriatal (e.g., Alexander, DeLong, & Strick, 1986; Haber, Fudge, & McFarland, 2000; Robbins, 2007), and chemical neuromodulatory (e.g., Colzato, Waszak, Nieuwenhuis, Posthuma, & Hommel, 2010; Robbins & Arnsten, 2009) circuits.”
Dopamine in motivational control: rewarding, aversive, and alerting (2010, background): “…dopamine can also exert immediate control over neural circuits by modulating neural spiking activity and synaptic connections between neurons (Surmeier et al., 2007; Robbins and Arnsten, 2009), in some cases doing so in a manner that would promote immediate reward-seeking actions (Frank, 2005).”
Neuronal Reward and Decision Signals: From Theories to Data. (2015, background): “These functions extend from motor processes in the striatum evidenced by Parkinsonian movement deficits to prefrontal processes of working memory, attention, reversal learning, categorization, and response control (470).”
Child Development in the Context of Adversity (2012, background): “…to the regulation of neuroendocrine levels, which, as noted above, are highly relevant to the activity in brain areas associated with more volitional and proactive responses to stimulation (Robbins & Arnsten, 2009) and with complex learning and memory (Liu, Diorio, Day, Francis, & Meaney, 2000).”
Orienting and reorienting: the locus coeruleus mediates cognition through arousal. (2012, neutral): “The release of NA is beneficial, if not necessary, for normal prefrontal cortex function, in particular in complex tasks requiring attention and/or executive control (Arnsten, 2000; Crofts et al., 2001; Robbins and Roberts, 2007; McGaughy et al., 2008; Robbins and Arnsten, 2009).”