Locus coeruleus: a new look at the blue spot

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Gina R Poe, University of California Los Angeles; Stephen Foote, 5312 Hampden Lane; Oxana Eschenko, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics; Joshua P Johansen, RIKEN; Sebastien Bouret, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris; Gary Aston-Jones, Rutgers State University; Carolyn W Harley, Memorial University; Denise Manahan-Vaughan, Ruhr University Bochum; David Weinshenker, Emory University; Rita Valentino, National Institute on Drug Abuse; Craig Berridge, University Wisconsin-Madison; Daniel J Chandler, Rowan University; Barry Waterhouse, Rowan University; Susan J Sara, Coll France
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-09-17
• Publisher: NATURE RESEARCH
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2020, Springer Nature Limited
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0360-9
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: NATURE REVIEWS NEUROSCIENCE
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 11
• Start Page: 644
• End Page: 659
• Grant/Funding Information: Funding for the 3-day workshop that generated this Perspective was provided by a grant from the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation Center on International Education to G.R.P. and S.J.S.Research funding to D.M.-V.: German Research Foundation project no.: 316803389, SFB 1280/A04.
• Keywords: DENTATE GYRUS; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Neurosciences & Neurology; SCAN CYCLIC VOLTAMMETRY; Neurosciences; NORADRENERGIC NEURONS; PREFRONTAL CORTEX; RECEPTOR SUBTYPES; LONG-TERM POTENTIATION; AREA-17 NEURONAL RESPONSES; Science & Technology; CORTICOTROPIN-RELEASING-FACTOR; CERULEUS NEURONS; VAGUS NERVE-STIMULATION

Abstract

The locus coeruleus (LC), or ‘blue spot’, is a small nucleus located deep in the brainstem that provides the far-reaching noradrenergic neurotransmitter system of the brain. This phylogenetically conserved nucleus has proved relatively intractable to full characterization, despite more than 60 years of concerted efforts by investigators. Recently, an array of powerful new neuroscience tools have provided unprecedented access to this elusive nucleus, revealing new levels of organization and function. We are currently at the threshold of major discoveries regarding how this tiny brainstem structure exerts such varied and significant influences over brain function and behaviour. All LC neurons receive inputs related to autonomic arousal, but distinct subpopulations of those neurons can encode specific cognitive processes, presumably through more specific inputs from the forebrain areas. This ability, combined with specific patterns of innervation of target areas and heterogeneity in receptor distributions, suggests that activation of the LC has more specific influences on target networks than had initially been imagined.