Neural mechanisms of attention that facilitate extinction learning

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K18645
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 10:Psychology and related fields
• Research Institution: Shiga University of Medical Science (2023); Kyoto University (2022)
• Principal Investigator: Ogawa Masaaki 滋賀医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (00716186)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 伊佐 正 京都大学, 医学研究科, 教授 (20212805)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-06-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 注意

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the field of psychology, it has long been said that everyone knows what attention is but many aspects of its neural mechanisms remain unknown. This study aimed to develop techniques to elucidate the neural mechanisms of attention that promote learning when there is a discrepancy between expected and actual rewards, known as disappointment; in other words, the attention that facilitates extinction learning.
Firstly, a rat behavior model was developed to quantitatively evaluate behavior in response to reward disappointment occurring within sub-second intervals. Secondly, to investigate whether the increase in neurotransmitters at the moment of disappointment causally promotes extinction learning, a behavioral task was developed that integrates with optogenetic methods to control the activity of neural circuits with millisecond precision.

Free Research Field

神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

注意という心理機能は、非常に身近なものであるが、特に、学習の度合いを調節する注意の神経メカニズムは、未だその多くが不明である。本研究は、思ったとおりにうまくいかない期待外れが生じる際に、その学習を促進する注意、すなわち消去学習を促進する注意の神経メカニズムを解明するための基礎となる技術開発を行った。本研究が対象とする神経伝達物質アセチルコリンは、記憶や認知に関わると共に、認知症や不安などに関わることが知られる。よって本研究開発は、注意機能の神経基盤を明らかにすると共に、将来的に精神・神経疾患の理解と治療につながる可能性がある。