The cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia are disabling and are not well addressed by current treatments. These symptoms, which include attention deficits, arise early in the illness and suggest aberrant maturation of the prefrontal cortex. Recent work shows that corticothalamic neurons of prefrontal cortex and their cholinergic inputs are essential for normal attention under demanding conditions. I will discuss how disruptions during development result in long-lasting changes both to the structure of these neurons and to the kinetics of their excitation by acetylcholine. Given the precise timing and co-ordination of signals required for optimal performance on attention tasks, the vulnerability of corticothalamic feedback neurons to aberrant development points to a cellular mechanism relevant to the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia.