Fibers containing galanin (GAL) hyperinnervate cholinergic basal forebrain (CBF) nucleus basalis neurons in late stage Alzheimer's disease (AD), yet the molecular consequences of this phenomenon are unknown. To determine whether GAL alters the expression of genes critical to CBF cell survival in AD, single cell microarray analysis was used to determine mRNA levels within nucleus basalis neurons...

Acetylcholine profoundly affects neocortical function, being involved in arousal, attention, learning, memory, sensory and motor function, and plasticity. The majority of cholinergic afferents to neocortex are from neurons in nucleus basalis. Nucleus basalis also contains projecting neurons that release other transmitters, including GABA and possibly glutamate. Hence, electrical stimulation of ...

Kalmbach A, Hedrick T, Waters J. Selective optogenetic stimulation of cholinergic axons in neocortex. J Neurophysiol 107: 2008–2019, 2012. First published January 11, 2012; doi:10.1152/jn.00870.2011.— Acetylcholine profoundly affects neocortical function, being involved in arousal, attention, learning, memory, sensory and motor function, and plasticity. The majority of cholinergic afferents to ...

The memory dysfunction of Alzheimer disease has been associated with a cortical cholinergic deficiency and loss of cholinergic neurons of the nucleus basalis of Meynert. This cholinergic component of Alzheimer disease can be modeled in the rat by ibotenic acid lesions of the cholinergic nucleus basalis magnocellularis. The memory impairment caused by such unilateral lesions, as reflected in pas...