Charles M. Butter Collegiate Professor of Psychology; Professor, Neuroscience
About
My primary research program is aimed at understanding the basal forebrain cholinergic system and its role in cognitive functions, particularly attention. Much of this work has been conducted in rodents, but we also use a wide range of techniques and approaches ranging from mouse molecular work on choline transporters to human behavioral genetics and neuroimaging. We have made significant progress toward understanding the regulation and functions of this neuronal system, in part as a result of the development of new electrochemical methods for monitoring real-time neurotransmitter release in task-performing animals and by combining these methods with optogenetic manipulations in task-performing animals. Current projects concern (1) the impact of genetically-imposed variations in the capacity of the neuronal choline transport on cognitive-cholinergic functions and the vulnerability to brain injury, (2) the role of cholinergic systems for complex movement control in Parkinson’s disease, and (3) cholinergic-attentional control of drug cues. Details about my research program can be found at https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/msarter/
Recent Representative Publications:
Parikh, V., Kozak, R., Martinez, V., & Sarter, M. (2007). Prefrontal acetylcholine controls cue detection on multiple time scales. Neuron, 56, 141-154. PubMed
Parikh, V., Man, K., Decker, M.W., & Sarter, M. (2008). Glutamatergic contributions to nAChR agonist-evoked cholinergic transients in the prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 28, 3769-3780. PubMed
Sarter, M., Parikh, V., & Howe, W.M. (2009). Phasic acetylcholine release and the volume transmission hypothesis: time to move on. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 383-390. PubMed
Parikh, V., Ji, J., Decker, M.W., & Sarter, M. (2010). Prefrontal β2 subunit-containing and α7 nAChRs differentially control glutamatergic and cholinergic signaling. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 3518-3530. PubMed
Hasselmo, M.E., & Sarter, M. (2011). Modes and models of forebrain cholinergic neuromodulation of cognition. Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, 36, 52-73. PubMed
Sarter, M., & Tricklebank, M. (2012). Revitalizing psychiatric drug discovery. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 11, 423-424. PubMed
Paolone, G., Lee, T.M., & Sarter, M. (2012). Time to pay attention: attentional performance time-stamped prefrontal cholinergic activation, diurnality and performance. Journal of Neuroscience, 32, 12115-12128. PubMed
Parikh, V., Howe, W.M., Welchko, R.C., Naughton, S.X., D’Amore, D.E., Han, D.H., Deo, M., Turner, D.L., & Sarter, M. (2013). Diminished trkA receptor signaling reveals cholinergic-attentional vulnerability to aging. European Journal of Neuroscience, 37, 278-293. PubMed
Parikh, V., St. Peters, M., Blakely, R.D., & Sarter, M. (2013). The presynaptic choline transporter imposes limits on sustained cortical acetylcholine release and attention. Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 2326-2337. PubMed
Demeter, E., Guthrie, S.K., Taylor, S.T., Sarter, M., & Lustig C. (2013). Increased distractor vulnerability but preserved vigilance in patients with schizophrenia: evidence from a translational sustained attention task. Schizophrenia Research, 144, 136-141. PubMed
Paolone, G., Angelakos, C.C., Meyer, P., Robinson, T.E., & Sarter, M. (2013). Cholinergic control over attention in rats prone to attribute incentive salience to reward cues. Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 8321-8335. PubMed
Howe, M.W., Berry, A.S., Francois, F., Gilmour, G., Carp, J.M., Tricklebank, M., Lustig, C., & Sarter, M. (2013). Prefrontal cholinergic mechanisms instigating shifts from monitoring for cues to cue-guided performance: Converging electrochemical and fMRI evidence from rats and humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 8742-8752. PubMed
Paolone, G., Mallory, C.S., & Blakely, R.D., & Sarter, M. (2013). Monitoring cholinergic neurotransmission during attentional performance in mice heterozygous for the choline transporter: a model of cholinergic capacity limits. Neuropharmacology, 75, 274-285. PubMed
Kucinski, A., Paolone, G., Bradshaw, M., Albin, R.L., & Sarter, M. (2013). Modeling fall propensity in Parkinson’s disease: Deficits in the attentional control of complex movements in rats with cortical-cholinergic and striatal-dopaminergic deafferentation. Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 16522-16539. PubMed
Koshy Cherian, A., Gritton, H., Johnson, D.E., Young, D., Kozak, R., & Sarter, M, (2014). A systemically-available kynurenine aminotransferase II (KAT II) inhibitor restores nicotine-evoked glutamatergic activity in the cortex of rats. Neuropharmacology, 82: 41-48. PubMed
Holmstrand, E.C., Lund, D., Cherian, A.K., Wright, J., Martin, R.F., Ennis, E.A., Stanwood, G.D., Sarter, M., & Blakely, R.D. (2014). Transgenic overexpression of the presynaptic choline transporter elevates acetylcholine levels and augments motor endurance. Neurochemistry International, 73, 217-228. PubMed
Sarter, M., Lustig, C., Howe, W.M., Gritton, H., & Berry, A.S. (2014). Deterministic functions of cortical acetylcholine. European Journal of Neuroscience, 39, 1912-1920. PubMed
Sarter, M., Albin, R.L., Kucinski, A., & Lustig, C. (2014). Where attention falls: increased risk of falls from the converging impact of cortical cholinergic and midbrain dopamine loss on striatal function. Experimental Neurology, 257, 120-129. PubMed
Berry, A.S., Demeter, E., Sabhapathy, S., English, B., Blakely, R.D., Sarter, M., & Lustig, C. (2014). Disposed to distraction? Genetic variation in the cholinergic system influences distractibility but not time-on-task effects. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 25,1981-1991. PubMed
Sarter, M. (2015). Behavioral-cognitive targets for cholinergic enhancement. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 4, 22-26. ScienceDirect
Kucinski, A., Albin, R.L., Lustig, C., & Sarter, M. (2015). Modeling fall propensity in Parkinson’s disease: extensive striatal dopamine loss-associated freezing of gait. Behavioural Brain Research, 282, 155-164. PubMed
Berry, A.S., Blakely, R.D., Sarter, M., & Lustig, C. (2015). Cholinergic capacity mediates prefrontal engagement during challenges to attention: evidence from imaging genetics. NeuroImage, 108, 386-395. PubMed
Sarter, M., & Kim, Y. (2015). Interpreting chemical neurotransmission in vivo: techniques, time scales and theories. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 6, 8-10. PubMed
Gritton, H.J., Howe, M.W., Mallory, C.S., Hetrick, V.L., Berke, J.D., & Sarter, M. (2016). Cortical cholinergic signaling controls the detection of cues. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in press.
Area
Alternate Office
- 4252, 4252A, 4252B East Hall
Field(s) of Study
