The contribution of the basal forebrain cholinergic system in mediating plasticity of cortical sensorimotor representations was examined in the context of normal learning. The effects of specific basal forebrain cholinergic lesions upon cortical reorganization associated with learning a skilled motor task were investigated, addressing, for the first time, the functional consequences of blocking...

The striatum is one of the major forebrain regions that strongly expresses muscarinic and nicotinic cholinergic receptors. This article reviews the current knowledge and our new findings about the striatal cholinoceptive organization and its role in a variety of cognitive functions. Pharmacological and genetic manipulations have indicated that the cholinergic and dopaminergic system in the stri...

Neurophysiological studies demonstrated that increases in cholinergic transmission in sensory areas enhance the cortical processing of thalamic inputs. Cholinergic activity also suppresses the retrieval of internal associations, thereby further promoting sensory input processing. Behavioral studies documented the role of cortical cholinergic inputs in attentional functions and capacities by dem...

The cholinergic system has been widely implicated in cognitive processes and cholinergic loss is a classical hallmark in Alzheimer disease. Increasing evidence supports a role of the serotonergic system in cognition, possibly through a modulation of cholinergic activity. We compared selective cholinergic denervation by administration of the immunotoxin 192 IgG-saporin in the nucleus basalis of ...

A reorganization of cortical representations is postulated as the basis for functional recovery following many types of nervous system injury. Neuronal mechanisms underlying this form of cortical plasticity are poorly understood. The present study investigated the hypothesis that the basal forebrain cholinergic system plays an essential role in enabling the cortical reorganization required for ...

The cerebral cholinergic system is centrally involved in memory formation. Studies in rodents suggest that cholinergic stimulation may facilitate encoding of new information but may interfere with retrieval. We investigated the effect of cholinergic stimulation on encoding and retrieval of episodic memory in humans. We also tested whether the putative benefit of cholinergic stimulation on memor...

INTRODUCTION The cholinergic system includes neurons located in the basal forebrain and their long axons that reach the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus. This system modulates cognitive function. In Alzheimer's disease (AD) and ageing, cognitive impairment is associated with progressive damage to cholinergic fibres, which leads us to the cholinergic hypothesis for AD. DEVELOPMENT The AD pr...