Scholars@Duke
Anita Disney

Anita Disney

Assistant Professor of Neurobiology
Neurobiology
anita.disney@duke.edu
DUMC Box 3209, Durham, NC 27710
311 Research Drive, Durham, NC 27710
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Selected Publications

Neuromodulatory Control of Early Visual Processing in Macaque.

Journal Article Annu Rev Vis Sci · September 15, 2021 Visual processing is dynamically controlled by multiple neuromodulatory molecules that modify the responsiveness of neurons and the strength of the connections between them. In particular, modulatory control of processing in the lateral geniculate nucleus ... Full text Link to item Cite

Functional Clusters of Neurons in Layer 6 of Macaque V1.

Journal Article J Neurosci · March 18, 2020 Layer 6 appears to perform a very important role in the function of macaque primary visual cortex, V1, but not enough is understood about the functional characteristics of neurons in the layer 6 population. It is unclear to what extent the population is ho ... Full text Link to item Cite

Diverse Spatiotemporal Scales of Cholinergic Signaling in the Neocortex.

Journal Article J Neurosci · January 22, 2020 ACh is a signaling molecule in the mammalian CNS, with well-documented influence over cognition and behavior. However, the nature of cholinergic signaling in the brain remains controversial, with ongoing debates focused on the spatial and temporal resoluti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Translational implications of the anatomical nonequivalence of functionally equivalent cholinergic circuit motifs.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · December 26, 2019 Biomedical research is at a critical juncture, with an aging population increasingly beset by chronic illness and prominent failures to translate research from "bench to bedside." These challenges emerge on a background of increasing "silo-ing" of experime ... Full text Link to item Cite

Structure and function of dual-source cholinergic modulation in early vision.

Journal Article J Comp Neurol · February 15, 2019 Behavioral states such as arousal and attention have profound effects on sensory processing, determining how-even whether-a stimulus is perceived. This state-dependence is believed to arise, at least in part, in response to inputs from subcortical structur ... Full text Link to item Cite

Most calbindin-immunoreactive neurons, but few calretinin-immunoreative neurons, express the m1 acetylcholine receptor in the middle temporal visual area of the macaque monkey

Journal Article · February 27, 2018 Abstract Release of the neuromodulator acetylcholine into cortical circuits supports cognition, although its precise role and mechanisms of action are not well-understood. Little is known about functional differences in cholinergic modulatory effects acros ... Full text Cite

Modulatory compartments in cortex and local regulation of cholinergic tone.

Journal Article J Physiol Paris · September 2016 Neuromodulatory signaling is generally considered broad in its impact across cortex. However, variations in the characteristics of cortical circuits may introduce regionally-specific responses to diffuse modulatory signals. Features such as patterns of axo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Optogenetic manipulation of neural circuits in awake marmosets

Journal Article Journal of Neurophysiology · September 1, 2016 Optogenetics has revolutionized the study of functional neuronal circuitry (Boyden ES, Zhang F, Bamberg E, Nagel G, Deisseroth K. Nat Neurosci 8: 1263–1268, 2005; Deisseroth K. Nat Methods 8: 26–29, 2011). Although these techniques have been most ... Full text Cite

A multi-site array for combined local electrochemistry and electrophysiology in the non-human primate brain.

Journal Article J Neurosci Methods · November 30, 2015 BACKGROUND: Currently, the primary technique employed in circuit-level study of the brain is electrophysiology, recording local field or action potentials (LFPs or APs). However most communication between neurons is chemical and the relationship between el ... Full text Link to item Cite

Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors are expressed by most parvalbumin-immunoreactive neurons in area MT of the macaque.

Journal Article Brain Behav · May 2014 BACKGROUND: In the mammalian neocortex, cells that express parvalbumin (PV neurons) comprise a dominant class of inhibitory neuron that substantially overlaps with the fast/narrow-spiking physiological phenotype. Attention has pronounced effects on narrow- ... Full text Link to item Cite

Expression of m1‐type muscarinic acetylcholine receptors by parvalbumin‐immunoreactive neurons in the primary visual cortex: A comparative study of rat, guinea pig, ferret, macaque, and human

Journal Article Journal of Comparative Neurology · April 2014 ABSTRACTCholinergic neuromodulation is a candidate mechanism for aspects of arousal and attention in mammals. We have reported previously that cholinergic modulation in the primary visual cortex (V1) of the macaque monkey i ... Full text Cite

Orthogonal micro-organization of orientation and spatial frequency in primate primary visual cortex.

Journal Article Nat Neurosci · December 2012 Orientation and spatial frequency tuning are highly salient properties of neurons in primary visual cortex (V1). The combined organization of these particular tuning properties in the cortical space will strongly shape the V1 population response to differe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cholinergic suppression of visual responses in primate V1 is mediated by GABAergic inhibition

Journal Article Journal of Neurophysiology · October 1, 2012 Acetylcholine (ACh) has been implicated in selective attention. To understand the local circuit action of ACh, we iontophoresed cholinergic agonists into the primate primary visual cortex (V1) while presenting optimal visual stimuli. Consistent wi ... Full text Cite

Quantitative analysis of neurons with Kv3 potassium channel subunits, Kv3.1b and Kv3.2, in macaque primary visual cortex.

Journal Article J Comp Neurol · October 1, 2009 Voltage-gated potassium channels that are composed of Kv3 subunits exhibit distinct electrophysiological properties: activation at more depolarized potentials than other voltage-gated K+ channels and fast kinetics. These channels have been shown to contrib ... Full text Link to item Cite

Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in macaque V1 are most frequently expressed by parvalbumin-immunoreactive neurons.

Journal Article J Comp Neurol · April 10, 2008 Acetylcholine (ACh) is believed to underlie mechanisms of arousal and attention in mammals. ACh also has a demonstrated functional effect in visual cortex that is both diverse and profound. We have reported previously that cholinergic modulation in V1 of t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gain modulation by nicotine in macaque v1.

Journal Article Neuron · November 21, 2007 Acetylcholine is a ubiquitous cortical neuromodulator implicated in cognition. In order to understand the potential for acetylcholine to play a role in visual attention, we studied nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) localization and function in area ... Full text Link to item Cite

Differential expression of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors across excitatory and inhibitory cells in visual cortical areas V1 and V2 of the macaque monkey.

Journal Article J Comp Neurol · November 1, 2006 Cholinergic neuromodulation, a candidate mechanism for aspects of attention, is complex and is not well understood. Because structure constrains function, quantitative anatomy is an invaluable tool for reducing such a challenging problem. Our goal was to d ... Full text Link to item Cite

Hallucinations and acetylcholine: Signal or noise?

Journal Article Behavioral and Brain Sciences · December 2004 The cholinergic system is a good candidate for the role of determining the relative weight given in cortical information processing to new sensory information versus prior knowledge. We discuss the physiological data supporting this, and suggest th ... Full text Cite