, 2012a). Similarly, in this model we showed that stimulation of the BF increases reliability of neurons in cortex (Fig. 11F). In addition to the GABAergic projections from selleck screening library the BF to the TRN, it has been shown that there exist topographic top-down projections to the TRN from the PFC (Zikopoulos & Barbas, 2007; McAlonan et al., 2008). These projections may act as an attentional

filter, enhancing important information at the expense of irrelevant information before this information even gets to the cortex. Given this circuitry, we were able to show that top-down attentional signals can also lead to an increase in reliability of a single receptive field via projections to the TRN (Fig. 11D). Several computational models have been recently developed that show how neuromodulation can effect cortical processing. The SMART model (Synchronous Matching Adaptive Resonance Theory) developed by Grossberg & Versace (2008) is a spiking model that included a detailed cortical and subcortical (thalamic) circuit design as well as synaptic plasticity and cholinergic neuromodulation. Deco & Thiele (2011) also developed a model demonstrating how cholinergic activity affects the interaction between top-down attentional input and bottom-up sensory information in a cortical

area. Finally, a model of the cholinergic and noradrenergic systems was developed that demonstrated how these systems track expected and unexpected uncertainty in the environment, respectively, and

affect several cortical targets in order to optimise behavior (Avery Talazoparib mw et al., 2012b). The present model differed from those mentioned above in several important ways. First, it showed how non-cholinergic neurons (GABAergic) in the BF could influence subcortical structures (TRN). The three papers above, by contrast, concentrated exclusively on cholinergic neurons in the BF and their influence on the cortex. Second, our model presented a mechanism showing how the BF can enhance both bottom-up sensory input Urocanase and top-down attention by incorporating local and global modes of action by the BF. Thiele and Deco, on the other hand, were interested in modeling cholinergic influences on top-down attention and Avery et al. were interested in modeling the cholinergic enhancement of bottom-up sensory input. It would be interesting to combine the level of detail of our model and the SMART model with the wide range of cholinergic actions that were incorporated into Deco & Thiele (2011) and Avery et al. (2012b). This study was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) subcontract 801888-BS, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) via Department of the Interior (DOI) contract number D10PC20021, and NSF award number IIS-0910710.