GABA- Acetylcholine Interactions and Memory

乙酰胆碱和胆碱能系统有助于学习和记忆。特别是，隔海马胆碱能系统似乎是工作记忆过程的关键神经底物。抗胆碱能药物引起的这个系统的改变，这个系统的电解性或神经毒性损伤会在不破坏参考记忆的情况下导致工作记忆的损害。临床证据也支持变性在阿尔茨海默型老年痴呆症中的作用。工作记忆参与暂时维持先前经历的事件或情节的表征，而参考记忆有助于在适当的区别性刺激存在的情况下执行良好学习的反应。这一记忆成分理论为解释在人类和动物的记忆过程中观察到的海马结构或其胆碱能神经受损后的分离提供了一个概念性框架。托马斯·沃尔什博士正在结合大鼠的药理学和行为学实验，以确定两种递质GABA和乙酰胆碱在海马区突触活动调节中的相互作用。

Acetylcholine and the cholinergic system contribute to learning and memory. In particular, the septohippocampal cholinergic system appears to be a critical neural substrate of working memory processes. Alterations of this system induced by anticholinergic drugs, electrolytic or neurotoxic lesions of this system produce impairments in working memory without disrupting reference memory. Clinical evidence also supports a role for degenerates in Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type. Working memory is involved in temporarily maintaining representations of previously experienced events or episodes, whereas reference memory contributes to the performance of well-learned responses in the presence of an appropriate discriminative stimulus. This component theory of memory serves to provide a conceptual framework for interpreting the dissociation in memory processes observed in both humans and animals following damage to the hippocampal formation or to its cholinergic innervation. Dr. Thomas Walsh is combining both pharmacological and behavioral experiments on rats in order to define the interactions between two transmitters GABA and acetylcholine in the modulation of synaptic activity in the hippocampus.