Continuing to discover how the brain works is one of the great challenges ahead of us. Although understanding the brain anatomy and its functional organization provided a first and indispensable foundation, it became clear that a static view was insufficient. To understand the complexity of neuronal communication, it is necessary to examine the chemical nature of the neurotransmission and, usin...

Webb W, Campbell SS (1983): Relationships in sleep characteristics of identical and fraternal twins. Arch Gen Psychiatry 40: 10931095. Weissman MM, Gershon ES, Kidd KK, Prusoff BA, Leckman JF, Dibble E, Hamovit J, Thompson D, Pauls DL, Guroff JJ (1984): Psychiatric disorders in the relatives of probands with affective disorders. The Yale University-National Institute of Mental Health Collaborat...

AIM Cholinergic regulation is important in the control of cardiovascular and endocrine responses. The mechanisms behind cardiovascular responses induced by cholinergic activation are explored by studying hormonal systems, including renin-angiotensin and vasopressin (VP). RESULTS In chronically prepared fetal sheep, intravenous infusion of the cholinergic agonist carbachol increased fetal syst...

In spite of affecting the life of millions of people, chronic traumatic brain injury (TBI) has not been hitherto treatable with effective pharmacological tools. This review gives a comprehensive summary of the theoretical data supporting the pharmacological manipulation of the cholinergic system in TBI, pointing out the most urgent targets for further studies. The published clinical evidence of...

E. De Rosa and M. E. Hasselmo (2000) demonstrated that 0.25 mg/kg scopolamine (SCOP) selectively increased proactive interference (PI) from stored odor memories during learning. In the present study, rats with bilateral cholinergic lesions limited to the horizontal limb of the diagonal band of Broca, made with 192 IgG-saporin, were not impaired in acquiring the same olfactory discrimination tas...

The peripheral nervous system has complex and intricate ramifications throughout many target organ systems. To date this system has not been effectively labeled by genetic markers, due largely to inadequate transcriptional specification by minimum promoter constructs. Here we describe transgenic mice in which enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) is expressed under the control of endogenous...

BACKGROUND AND METHODS Several lines of evidence support a strong relationship between cholinergic pathways and memory. The aim of our experiments was to examine the mechanisms involved in the formation of different memory stages, to evaluate the impact of substances, which affect the cholinergic system in mice, with an employment of the modified elevated plus maze (mEPM) test. This test allows...

OBJECTIVE The pharmacological response to drugs that act on the cholinergic system of the iris has been used to predict deficits in central cholinergic functioning due to diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, yet correlations between central and peripheral responses have not been properly studied. This study assessed the effect of normal aging on (1) the tropicamide-induced increase in pupil di...