OBJECTIVE This article reviews evidence indicating that acetylcholinesterase inhibitors have psychotropic properties. METHOD The author reviewed the English-language literature pertinent to the response of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease and related conditions to cholinergic agents. RESULTS The cholinergic system originates in the basal forebrain and projects diffusely to t...

Cholinergic deafferentation of telencephalon is a major factor contributing to cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease. There is evidence that the degeneration of cholinergic fibers which innervate the cortex and hippocampus is due to the development of neurofibrillary tangles in the perikarya of origin. Neurofibrillary tangle formation has been modeled in the transgenic pR5 mouse strain th...

New criteria for cytological analysis of sheep vaginal swabs (cytovaginal examination) during sexual hunting, the cycle, after insemination and depending on effectiveness have been developed. Cytological material was collected from area upper vault using a sterile mirror, forceps cotton gauze swab. Staining brushstrokes performed according to Gimza-Romanovsky. To improve method cytovaginal exam...

Fibroblasts from patients with the severe laminopathy diseases, restrictive dermopathy (RD) and Hutchinson Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS), are characterized by poor growth in culture, the presence of abnormally shaped nuclei and the accumulation of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB). Here we show that the accumulation of DSB and poor growth of the fibroblasts but not the presence of abnormally sh...

The basal ganglia are a group of nuclei that signal to and from the cerebral cortex. They play an important role in cognition and in the initiation and regulation of normal motor activity. A range of characteristic motor diseases such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s have been associated with the degeneration and lesioning of the dopaminergic neurons that target these regions. The study of dopam...

Blepharospasm (sometimes called "benign essential blepharospasm," BEB) is one of the most common focal dystonias. It involves involuntary eyelid spasms, eye closure, and increased blinking. Despite the success of botulinum toxin injections and, in some cases, pharmacologic or surgical interventions, BEB treatments are not completely efficacious and only symptomatic. We could develop principled ...

Parkinson’s disease is the most common parkinsonian syndrome among a group of primary degenerative brain disorders that manifest parkinsonian signs and symptoms. First described by Sir James Parkinson almost 200 years ago [1], it is believed to affect 0.5–1% of the population above the age of 60. The cardinal motor phenomena include rest tremor, increased muscle tone (rigidity), bradykinesia an...

The distribution and persistence of radioactively labeled benzo (a)pyrene IB(a)Pl in the skin of adult female SENCAR mice were investigated by autoradiography of epidermal whole mounts and cross sections at intervals following a single initiating application of 200 nmol of either I3HIB(a)P (2 mCi) or f'4CJB(a)P(23 MCi).One day after treatment, the entire thickness of the skin was labeled the gr...

The lamprey belongs to the phylogenetically oldest group of vertebrates that diverged from the mammalian evolutionary line 560 million years ago. A comparison between the lamprey and mammalian basal ganglia establishes a detailed similarity regarding its input from cortex/pallium and thalamus, as well as its intrinsic organisation and projections of the output nuclei. This means that the basal ...

The basal ganglia are critical for selecting actions and evaluating their outcome. Although the circuitry for selection is well understood, how these nuclei evaluate the outcome of actions is unknown. Here, we show in lamprey that a separate evaluation circuit, which regulates the habenula-projecting globus pallidus (GPh) neurons, exists within the basal ganglia. The GPh neurons are glutamaterg...