Nerve growth factor (NGF) is able to restore spatial learning and reverse forebrain cholinergic neuron atrophy when administered intracerebrally to behaviorally impaired aged rats. In the present study, behaviorally unimpaired, middle-aged rats (14-16 months old) received transplants of ex vivo transduced, clonal NGF-secreting immortalized neural progenitor cells, bilaterally in the nucleus bas...

Correlation-based synaptic plasticity provides a potential cellular mechanism for learning and memory. Studies in the visual and somatosensory systems have shown that behavioral and surgical manipulation of sensory inputs leads to changes in cortical organization that are consistent with the operation of these learning rules. In this study, we examine how the organization of primary auditory co...

Hypothesized circuitry enabling information storage can be tested by attempting to implant memory directly in the brain in the absence of normal experience. Previously, we found that tone paired with activation of the cholinergic nucleus basalis (NB) does induce behavioral memory that shares cardinal features with natural memory; it is associative, highly specific, rapidly formed, consolidates ...

The behavioral, biochemical, histological, and electrophysiological effects of a basal forebrain injection of saporin, a ribosome-inactivating protein, coupled to a monoclonal antibody against the low-affinity NGF receptor (192 IgG) were investigated in adult rats. Within the basal forebrain region, the low-affinity NGF receptor is exclusively expressed by cholinergic neurons in the medial sept...

Elimination of presynaptic elements often results in marked changes, such as atrophy and death, in postsynaptic neurons in the central nervous system. These transneuronal changes are particularly rapid and profound in young animals. In order to understand the cellular events underlying transneuronal regulation it is necessary to explore changes in the local environment of neurons following mani...

#### Notable in Neurology This Week issue features an article that validates the use of plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 to detect amyloid plaques patients with Alzheimer disease; another investigates how age at which children have a stroke affects long-term cognitive outcome. A featured Research Article examines risk cerebral venous sinus thrombosis after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. ### Association Cognitive Impa...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Previous evidence from MRI and acetylcholinesterase histochemistry suggests cholinergic fibers are affected in cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL). METHODS As a measure of cholinergic function, we assessed choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activities in the frontal and temporal neocortices and the immunocyt...

Mechanisms of cognitive decline with aging remain primarily unknown. We determined whether localized cell loss occurred in brain regions associated with age-related cognitive decline in primates. On a task requiring the prefrontal cortex, aged monkeys were impaired in maintaining representations in working memory. Stereological quantification in area 8A, a prefrontal region associated with work...