Cited by 695Memory and Neural MechanismsNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology ResearchNeural dynamics and brain function

Norepinephrine ignites local hotspots of neuronal excitation: How arousal amplifies selectivity in perception and memory

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Mather, Mara, Clewett, David, Sakaki, Michiko, Harley, Carolyn W.·2016·Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Abstract

Emotional arousal enhances perception and memory of high-priority information but impairs processing of other information. Here, we propose that, under arousal, local glutamate levels signal the current strength of a representation and interact with norepinephrine (NE) to enhance high priority representations and out-compete or suppress lower priority representations. In our "glutamate amplifies noradrenergic effects" (GANE) model, high glutamate at the site of prioritized representations increases local NE release from the locus coeruleus (LC) to generate "NE hotspots." At these NE hotspots, local glutamate and NE release are mutually enhancing and amplify activation of prioritized representations. In contrast, arousal-induced LC activity inhibits less active representations via two mechanisms: 1) Where there are hotspots, lateral inhibition is amplified; 2) Where no hotspots emerge, NE levels are only high enough to activate low-threshold inhibitory adrenoreceptors. Thus, LC activation promotes a few hotspots of excitation in the context of widespread suppression, enhancing high priority representations while suppressing the rest. Hotspots also help synchronize oscillations across neural ensembles transmitting high-priority information. Furthermore, brain structures that detect stimulus priority interact with phasic NE release to preferentially route such information through large-scale functional brain networks. A surge of NE before, during, or after encoding enhances synaptic plasticity at NE hotspots, triggering local protein synthesis processes that enhance selective memory consolidation. Together, these noradrenergic mechanisms promote selective attention and memory under arousal. GANE not only reconciles apparently contradictory findings in the emotion-cognition literature but also extends previous influential theories of LC neuromodulation by proposing specific mechanisms for how LC-NE activity increases neural gain.

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Rasch B Spalek K Buholzer S Luechinger R Boesiger P Papassotiropoulos A Quervain DJFd 2009 A genetic variation of the noradrenergic system is related to differential amygdala activation during encoding of emotional memories Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106 45 19191 19196 10.2307/25593165 19826083 PMC2761241 · DOI
  2. Sutherland MR Mather M (under review) Both positive and negative arousing sounds increase the impact of visual salience

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Authors
Mather, M., Clewett, D., Sakaki, M., & Harley, C. W.
Affiliations
  • University of Southern California (US)
  • Kochi University of Technology (JP)
  • Memorial University of Newfoundland (CA)
Venue
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Published
2015-07-01
Volume
39
Pages
e200-e200
ISSN
  • 0140-525X (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-1825
OpenAlex
W2126712529
Cited by
695
References
402
Citations by year
2026: 70 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 59 · 2023: 86 · 2022: 66 · 2021: 87 · 2020: 65 · 2019: 49 · 2018: 53 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 5
FWCI
26.68
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Behavioral and Brain Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • CentAUR (University of Reading) (acceptedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
Funders
National Institute on Aging (R01AG025340)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
Keywords
norepinephrine, locus coeruleus, emotional arousal, glutamate, neural gain, selective attention, memory consolidation, lateral inhibition, adrenergic receptors, neural oscillations, synaptic plasticity, emotion-cognition interaction
MeSH terms
Arousal, Attention, Humans, Locus Coeruleus, Memory, Norepinephrine

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