The role of acetylcholine in the perirhinal cortex

描述（由申请人提供）：神经退行性疾病如阿尔茨海默病（AD）的特征在于严重和使人衰弱的记忆丧失。这种和其他记忆障碍涉及颞叶病理学的观察，导致了由海马（HC），嗅周（PRh）和内嗅皮质组成的“内侧颞叶（MTL）记忆系统”的想法。这些不同的结构似乎执行独特的，但互补的，记忆相关的功能。 由于AD的退化是进行性的，从鼻皮质开始，后来影响HC，因此分离MTL结构对记忆功能的特定贡献对于理解AD引起的记忆缺陷的进展是必要的。因此，本研究计划的主要目标是阐明这些结构如何有助于特定的学习和记忆过程。 AD神经生物学的第二个方面是胆碱能系统的变性，这一点受到了相当大的关注。在AD中退化的胆碱能神经元投射到上述MTL结构。因此，我提出的研究的第二个目的是研究乙酰胆碱（ACh）在这些区域中对记忆的作用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) are characterized by a severe and debilitating loss of memory. The observation that this and other disorders of memory involve pathology in the temporal lobe, has led to the idea of a 'Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL) memory system' consisting of the hippocampus (HC), perirhinal (PRh) and entorhinal cortices. These distinct structures appear to perform unique, yet complementary, memory-related functions. As the degeneration of AD is progressive, beginning with the rhinal cortex and later affecting the HC, isolating the specific contributions made by MTL structures to memory functioning is necessary for understanding the progression of memory deficits caused by AD. Thus, a main goal of the present research proposal is to clarify how these structures contribute to specific learning and memory processes. A second aspect of the neurobiology of AD that has received considerable attention is the degeneration of the cholinergic system. The cholinergic neurons that degenerate in AD project to the MTL structures described above. A second aim of my proposed research, therefore, is to investigate the role of acetylcholine (ACh) to memory in these regions.