The Effect of Catecholamines on Performance: From Unit to System Behavior

At the level of individual neurons, catecholamine release increases the responsivity of cells to excitatory and inhibitory inputs. We present a model of catecholamine effects in a network of neural-like elements. We argue that changes in the responsivity of individual elements do not affect their ability to detect a signal and ignore noise. However, the same changes in cell responsivity in a network of such elements do improve the signal detection performance of the network as a whole. We show how this result can be used in a computer simulation of behavior to account for the effect of CNS stimulants on the signal detection performance of human subjects.