Cholinergic transmission in the striatal complex is critical for the modulation of the activity of local microcircuits and dopamine release. Release of acetylcholine has been considered to originate exclusively from a subtype of striatal interneuron that provides widespread innervation of the striatum. Cholinergic neurons of the pedunculopontine (PPN) and laterodorsal tegmental (LDT) nuclei ind...

Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was injected to various parts of the amygdala in 50 rats. Retrograde axonal transport revealed that tegmental areas containing biogenic amines: dorsal and median raphe nuclei, locus coeruleus and ventral tegmental area, project diffusely to various amygdaloid areas. Moreover, HRP labeled cells were found in the parabrachial nucleus (following injection of the latera...

Anxiety is an unpleasant physiological state in which an overreaction to a situation occurs. It has been suggested that different brain regions are involved in the modulation and expression of anxiety, including the amygdala, hippocampus, and frontal cortex. Dysfunction of neurotransmitters and their receptors can lead to many mood disorders like anxiety. There are evidences that dopamine plays...

UNLABELLED We evaluated in vivo the integrity of brain cholinergic pathways in Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) and the relationship between cholinergic dysfunction and motor disturbances, by measuring the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) expression using Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and [(123)I]-iodobenzovesamicol ([(123)I]-IBVM). METHODS Nine patients with prob...