The pedunculopontine nucleus is known as a cholinergic nucleus of the reticular activating system, participating in regulation of sleep and wakefulness. Besides cholinergic neurons, it consists of GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons as well. According to classical and recent studies, more subgroups of neurons were defined. Groups based on the neurotransmitter released by a neuron are not homoge...

Tonically active cholinergic interneurons in the striatum modulate activities of striatal outputs from medium spiny (MS) neurons and significantly influence overall functions of the basal ganglia. Cellular mechanisms of this modulation are not fully understood. Here we show that ambient acetylcholine (ACh) derived from tonically active cholinergic interneurons constitutively upregulates depolar...

New neuron addition via continued neurogenesis in the postnatal/adult mammalian brain presents a distinct form of nervous system plasticity. During embryonic development, precise temporal and spatial patterns of neurogenesis are necessary to create the nervous system architecture. Similar between embryonic and postnatal stages, neurogenic proliferation is regulated by neural stem cell (NSC)-int...

Synaptic maintenance is essential for neural circuit function. In the C. elegans locomotor circuit, motor neurons are in direct contact with the epidermis. Here, we reveal a novel epidermal-neuronal interaction mediated by a two-immunoglobulin domain transmembrane protein, ZIG-10, that is necessary for maintaining cholinergic synapse density. ZIG-10 is localized at the cell surface of epidermis...

Striatal dopamine plays key roles in our normal and pathological goal-directed actions. To understand dopamine function, much attention has focused on how midbrain dopamine neurons modulate their firing patterns. However, we identify a presynaptic mechanism that triggers dopamine release directly, bypassing activity in dopamine neurons. We paired electrophysiological recordings of striatal chan...

How the extent and time course of presynaptic inhibition depend on the action potentials of the neuron controlling the terminals is unknown. We investigated this issue in the striatum using paired recordings from cholinergic interneurons and projection neurons. Glutamatergic EPSCs were evoked in projection neurons and cholinergic interneurons by stimulation of afferent fibers in the cortex and ...

RNA interference is a new approach to knockdown gene expression, but effectiveness varies depending on the organism, cell type or target sequence. Studies with Caenorhabditis elegans have shown that subsets of cells including neurons are often resistant to RNA interference. We measured RNA interference using green fluorescent protein reporter strains and feeding, soaking and injection delivery ...

An antiserum raised to Torpedo electromotor synaptosomal membranes (anti-TSM antiserum) induces a cholinergic-specific immune lysis of mammalian brain synaptosomes and recognizes a group of minor gangliosides appeared, therefore, to be specific to the cholinergic neuron and were designated Chol-1. To confirm the cholinergic specificity of the Chol-1 gangliosidic antigens, we have shown that not...

Initial theories of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep generation posited that induction of the state required activation of the pontine subceruleus (SubC) by cholinergic inputs. Although the capacity of cholinergic neurotransmission to contribute to REM sleep generation has been established, the role of cholinergic inputs in the generation of REM sleep is ultimately undetermined as the critical te...

Cholinergic inputs to the auditory cortex from the basal forebrain (BF) are important to auditory processing and plasticity, but little is known about the organization of these synapses onto different auditory cortical neuron types, how they influence auditory responsiveness, and their activity patterns during various behaviors. Using intersectional tracing, optogenetic circuit mapping, and in ...