The Neuroendocrinology & Behavior Laboratory, lead by Dr. Debra Bangasser, recently published "Stress regulation of sustained attention and the cholinergic attention system" in Biological Psychiatry.

How stress regulates attention is underexplored. Here we found that variable stress impairs sustained attention in male and female rats. Stress affected the attention circuit by altering the morphology of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons and their release of acetylcholine. We also identified transcriptional changes that could mediate the effect of stress on cholinergic neurons. Understanding the processes by which stress regulates attention can guide the development of novel treatments for psychiatric disorders with attention deficits.