Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30232259›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2018

Phasic locus coeruleus activity regulates cortical encoding of salience information.

Elena M Vazey, David E Moorman, Gary Aston-Jones

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 133 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
133citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

133 citing papers in PubMed.

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  9. Early life stress induces sex-specific changes in cognitive and affective behavior associated with disrupted noradrenergic physiology.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026
    Article
  10. Regulation of the decision threshold by the locus coeruleus.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026
    Article
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73 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Elena M VazeyDepartment of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003; evazey@umass.edu aston.jones@rutgers.edu.ORCID 0000-0003-3311-9414
David E MoormanDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003.ORCID 0000-0002-5755-0789
Gary Aston-JonesBrain Health Institute, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854 evazey@umass.edu aston.jones@rutgers.edu.ORCID 0000-0002-5034-3816

Funding

Role of Locus Coeruleus in Response InhibitionR01MH092868 · NIMH · RBHS-ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL · PI ASTON-JONES, GARY S. · 2011 to 2015
$1.8M
The Role of Locus Coeruleus in Decision Execution and Adaptive GainR00MH104716 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST · PI VAZEY, ELENA · 2015 to 2017
$737k
The Role of Locus Coeruleus in Decision Execution and Adaptive GainK99MH104716 · NIMH · RBHS-ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL · PI VAZEY, ELENA · 2014 to 2015
$137k
NIMH NIH HHS K99 MH104716NIMH NIH HHS R00 MH104716NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH092868
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Phasic activation of locus coeruleus (LC)-norepinephrine (NE) neurons is associated with focused attention and behavioral responses to salient stimuli. We used cell-type-specific optogenetics and single-unit neurophysiology to identify how LC activity influences neural encoding of sensory information. We found that phasic, but not tonic, LC-NE photoactivation generated a distinct event-related potential (ERP) across cortical regions. Salient sensory stimuli (which innately trigger phasic LC activity) produced strong excitatory cortical responses during this ERP window. Application of weaker, nonsalient stimuli produced limited responses, but these responses were elevated to salient stimulus levels when they were temporally locked with phasic LC photoactivation. These results demonstrate that phasic LC activity enhances cortical encoding of salient stimuli by facilitating long-latency signals within target regions in response to stimulus intensity/salience. The LC-driven salience signal identified here provides a measure of phasic LC activity that can be used to investigate the LC's role in attentional processing across species.

Indexed as

AnimalsEvoked PotentialsLocus CoeruleusMaleNeuronsOptogeneticsRatsRats, Long-EvansERPintensity codingnorepinephrinephasicsomatosensory cortex

Identifiers

PMID30232259
PMCPMC6176602

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.