The present study reports for the first time the distribution of androgen receptor immunoreactivity (AR-ir) in the human hypothalamus of ten human subjects (five men and five women) ranging in age between 20 years and 39 years using the antibody PG21. Prolonged postmortem delay (72:00 hours) or fixation time (100 days) did not influence the AR-ir. In men, intense nuclear AR-ir was found in neur...

The mechanism by which cholinergic neurons degenerate in Alzheimer's disease is not known. Some of these neurons depend, however, on trophic support from NGF via a membrane receptor. We have analyzed the state of these receptors by autoradiography, with 125I-NGF as the ligand, in the caudate nucleus, putamen, ventral striatum, nucleus basalis of Meynert, and nucleus tegmenti pedunculopontinus o...

The influence of thyroid hormone on the development of cholinergic neurons in nucleus basalis was assessed in hyperthyroid, hypothyroid, and euthyroid rats by use of CAT immunohistochemistry and single-section Golgi-impregnation histology. Animals were made either hyperthyroid by daily injections of 1.0 micrograms/gm body weight triiodothyronine starting at postnatal day (P) 3 or hypothyroid by...

See Gratwicke and Foltynie (doi:10.1093/brain/awx333) for a scientific commentary on this article.Cognitive impairments are a prevalent and disabling non-motor complication of Parkinson's disease, but with variable expression and progression. The onset of serious cognitive decline occurs alongside substantial cholinergic denervation, but imprecision of previously available techniques for in viv...

Microinjections of the dopamine agonist apomorphine into the nucleus basalis prosencephali of pigeons elicit stereotyped pecking behaviour. Injections of 6-hydroxydopamine, a toxic dopamine antagonist, into the same nucleus impair stereotyped pecking induced by systemic apomorphine administration, but do not interfere with pecking in the normal feeding context.

It is known that glutamatergic and cholinergic systems interact functionally at the level of the cholinergic basal forebrain. The N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDA-R) is a multiprotein complex composed of NR1, NR2 and/or NR3 subunits. The subunit composition of NMDA-R of cholinergic cells in the nucleus basalis has not yet been investigated. Here, by means of choline acetyl transferase and NR...

All sectors of the human cerebral cortex receive dense cholinergic input. The origin of this projection is located in the Ch4 cell group of the nucleus basalis of Meynert. However, very little is known about the location of the pathways which link the cholinergic neurons of the nucleus basalis to the human cerebral cortex. This question was addressed in whole-hemisphere sections processed for t...

Nerve growth factor (NGF) is able to restore spatial learning and reverse forebrain cholinergic neuron atrophy when administered intracerebrally to behaviorally impaired aged rats. In the present study, behaviorally unimpaired, middle-aged rats (14-16 months old) received transplants of ex vivo transduced, clonal NGF-secreting immortalized neural progenitor cells, bilaterally in the nucleus bas...

We examined the projection from the basal forebrain to thalamic and cortical regions of the visual system in cats, with particular reference to the visual sector of the thalamic reticular nucleus, the lateral geniculate nucleus, and the striate cortex. First, we made injections of wheat germ agglutinin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP) into the visual sector of the thalamic reticul...

Correlation-based synaptic plasticity provides a potential cellular mechanism for learning and memory. Studies in the visual and somatosensory systems have shown that behavioral and surgical manipulation of sensory inputs leads to changes in cortical organization that are consistent with the operation of these learning rules. In this study, we examine how the organization of primary auditory co...