Nicotinic modulation of frontal circuits breaks the cycle of attentional performance failure

Abstract

The ability to recover from consecutive failures is critical for adaptive behavior, yet the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. In vivo screening of neuromodulatory inputs onto frontal-sensory cognitive control circuit identified a frontal cholinergic mechanism that counteracts lapses in attentional engagement following repeated errors. Cholinergic input from the basal forebrain to the frontal cortex was necessary and sufficient to restore performance after errors, specifically after repeated-but not after a single-failure. This effect was mediated by 7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in frontal-sensory cortical neurons, which sustained cortical circuit activity and frontal-sensory cortical oscillations during attentional engagement. Targeted optogenetic activation of these frontal-sensory neurons disrupted cycles of attentional performance failure and reinstated behavioral performance in a mouse model of neuropsychiatric syndrome. These findings reveal a circuit-level mechanism of cholinergic control that confers cognitive resilience under conditions of persistent failure.