Selective removal of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain alters cued target detection

A spatial orienting task was used to assess attention in rats with selective cholinergic lesions of the basal forebrain. The task required each rat to press a lever in response to a visual target that could occur in one of two locations. A target could be preceded by a cue that either,accurately predicted the location of the target :(valid)or appeared in the location opposite the target (invalid). Target detection was facilitated by valid cues and degraded by invalid cues in control rats. Performance:of rats with lesions was equivalent to that of control rats for valid cues, but reflected an increased cost of invalid cueing. These data support a modulatory role for the basal forebrain cholinergic system in visuospatial attention. (C) 1999 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.