NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine impairs feature integration in visual perception.

Autor: Julia D I Meuwese, Anouk M van Loon, H Steven Scholte, Philipp B Lirk, Nienke C C Vulink, Markus W Hollmann, Victor A F Lamme
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2013
Předmět:
Zdroj: PLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 11, p e79326 (2013)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0079326
Popis: Recurrent interactions between neurons in the visual cortex are crucial for the integration of image elements into coherent objects, such as in figure-ground segregation of textured images. Blocking N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in monkeys can abolish neural signals related to figure-ground segregation and feature integration. However, it is unknown whether this also affects perceptual integration itself. Therefore, we tested whether ketamine, a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, reduces feature integration in humans. We administered a subanesthetic dose of ketamine to healthy subjects who performed a texture discrimination task in a placebo-controlled double blind within-subject design. We found that ketamine significantly impaired performance on the texture discrimination task compared to the placebo condition, while performance on a control fixation task was much less impaired. This effect is not merely due to task difficulty or a difference in sedation levels. We are the first to show a behavioral effect on feature integration by manipulating the NMDA receptor in humans.
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