Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by extracellular deposits of amyloid-beta peptide (Abeta) and a severe depletion of the cholinergic system, although the relationship between these two events is poorly understood. In the neocortex, there is a loss of cholinergic fibers and receptors and a decrease of both choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylc...

In addition to being a key component of the autonomic nervous system, acetylcholine acts as a prominent neurotransmitter and neuromodulator upon release from key groups of cholinergic projection neurons and interneurons distributed across the central nervous system. It has been more than forty years since it was discovered that cholinergic transmission profoundly modifies the perception of pain...

The striatum plays a central role in sensorimotor learning and action selection. Tonically active cholinergic interneurons in the striatum give rise to dense axonal arborizations and significantly shape striatal output. However, it is not clear how the activity of these neurons is regulated within the striatal microcircuitry. In this study, using rat brain slices, we find that stimulation of in...

Forebrain cholinergic neurons modulate complex mammalian behaviors such as reward-related learning and cognitive functions. Although their dysfunction is implicated in various psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, the factors governing cholinergic neuron differentiation and diversity are mostly unknown. We tested the role of the LIM-homeobox gene Isl1 in the development of forebrain choli...

Acetylcholine is critically involved in modulating learning and memory function, which both decline in neurodegeneration. It remains unclear to what extent structural and functional changes in the cholinergic system contribute to episodic memory dysfunction in mild cognitive impairment (MCI), in addition to hippocampal degeneration. A better understanding is critical, given that the cholinergic...

melissa officinalis l. (labiatae) traditionally used in treating neurological disorders has also been identified as a memory-enhancing herb. the extract of m. officinalis has a cholinergic property. the role of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, the neurons that are destroyed in alzheimer’s disease (ad), in learning and memory, is also well known. the aim of this study is to investigate the r...

introduction: nitric oxide is an important endogenous compound that acts as bronchodilator in trachea. electromagnetic fields (emf) affect nitric oxide level in different tissues. the interaction of nitrergic and cholinergic systems in airways has been reported. therefore, the present study was performed to evaluate the interaction of cholinergic and nitrergic systems in the trachea of rats tha...

introduction: thymol has negative ionotropic effect on heart and has direct effect on calcium release from sarcoplasmic reticulum. some of the herbal plants just like carum copticum consist of thymol. the postganglionic neurons of the gastrointestinal parasympathetic system are located mainly in the myenteric and submucosal plexuses. stimulation of these parasympathetic nerves causes general in...

Cholinergic neurons originating from the basal forebrain innervate the entire cortical mantle. Choline-sensitive microelectrodes were used to measure the synaptic release of cortical acetylcholine (ACh) at a subsecond resolution in rats performing a task involving the detection of cues. Cues that were detected, defined behaviorally, evoked transient increases in cholinergic activity (at the sca...

The present study investigated the effects of microinjections of acetylcholine (a cholinergic agonist), physostigmine (a cholinesterase inhibitor), atropine (an antagonist of muscarinic cholinergic receptors) and hexamethonium (an antagonist of nicotinic cholinergic receptors) into the parafascicular nucleus of thalamus on the acute corneal nociception in rats. Acute corneal nociception was ind...