Cholinergic neurons in the rostral brainstem, including the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN), are critical for switching behavioural state from sleep to wakefulness, and their presumed inactivity during sleep is thought to promote slow cortical rhythms that are characteristic of this state. However, it is possible that the diminished activity of cholinergic brainstem neurons during slow-wave slee...

The cellular mechanisms underlying the exceptional vulnerability of the basal forebrain (BF) cholinergic neurons during pathological aging have remained elusive. Here we employed an adeno-associated viral vector-based RNA interference (AAV-RNAi) strategy to suppress the expression of tropomyosin-related kinase A (trkA) receptors by cholinergic neurons in the nucleus basalis of Meynert/substanti...

gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic neurons are widely distributed in brainstem structures involved in the regulation of the sleep-wake cycle, locomotion, and attention. These brainstem structures include the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN), which is traditionally characterized by its population of cholinergic neurons that have local and wide-ranging connections. The functional heterogeneity of ...

Hearts of embryonic mice 9 days in utero were found to have an endogenous source of cholinergic neurons which can survive in dispersed cell cultures. These neurons are electrically excitable, have ultrastructural characteristics of cholinergic embryonic neurons, and functionally innervate heart cells in culture. The nature of the innervation described is muscarinic cholinergic.

We thank Grace (1) for the opportunity to discuss the role of cholinergic neurons in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep further. Grace suggests that optogenetic activation of a population of neurons does not necessarily demonstrate their role in the endogenous system when interrogating complex neural circuitry. We agree that we do not prove necessity of cholinergic neurons in REM sleep generation, ...

The medial septum/vertical limb of the diagonal band of Broca (MSDB) provides a major input to the hippocampus and is important for spatial memory. Both cholinergic and GABAergic MSDB neurons project to the hippocampus, and nonselective lesions of the MSDB or transections of the septohippocampal pathway impair spatial memory. However, selective lesions of cholinergic MSDB neurons using 192-IgG ...

1. Abstract 2. Introduction 3. Brainstem arousal systems 3.1. The reticular formation 3.2. The cholinergic ponto-mesencephalic neurons 3.3. The noradrenergic locus coeruleus neurons 3.4. The dopaminergic ventral mesencephalic neurons 3.5. The serotonergic raphe neurons 4. Thalamo-cortical activating system 5. Hypothalamic arousal systems 5.1. The posterior hypothalamus 5.2. The histaminergic tu...

1. The whole-cell patch-clamp technique was used to study the membrane properties of identified cholinergic and noncholinergic laterodorsal tegmental neurons in slices of rat brain maintained in vitro. 2. On the basis of their expression of the transient outward potassium current IA and the transient inward calcium current IT, three classes of neurons were observed: type I neurons exhibited a l...