Illuminating the role of cholinergic signaling in circuits of attention and emotionally salient behaviors
Name
Luchicchi-2014-Illuminating the rol.pdf
Size
671.29 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
759af2efe630a35b0e45349825d3eebc
Author(s)
Luchicchi, Antonio
Bloem, Bernard
Viaña, John Noel M.
Mansvelder, Huibert D.
Role, Lorna W.
Date Issued
October 2014
Journal
Frontiers in Synaptic Neuroscience
Publisher
Frontiers Research Foundation
Citation
Luchicchi, Antonio, Bernard Bloem, John Noel M. Viaña, Huibert D. Mansvelder, and Lorna W. Role. “Illuminating the Role of Cholinergic Signaling in Circuits of Attention and Emotionally Salient Behaviors.” Frontiers in Synaptic Neuroscience 6 (October 27, 2014).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Acetylcholine (ACh) signaling underlies specific aspects of cognitive functions and behaviors, including attention, learning, memory and motivation. Alterations in ACh signaling are involved in the pathophysiology of multiple neuropsychiatric disorders. In the central nervous system, ACh transmission is mainly guaranteed by dense innervation of select cortical and subcortical regions from disperse groups of cholinergic neurons within the basal forebrain (BF; e.g., diagonal band, medial septal, nucleus basalis) and the pontine-mesencephalic nuclei, respectively. Despite the fundamental role of cholinergic signaling in the CNS and the long standing knowledge of the organization of cholinergic circuitry, remarkably little is known about precisely how ACh release modulates cortical and subcortical neural activity and the behaviors these circuits subserve. Growing interest in cholinergic signaling in the CNS focuses on the mechanism(s) of action by which endogenously released ACh regulates cognitive functions, acting as a neuromodulator and/or as a direct transmitter via nicotinic and muscarinic receptors. The development of optogenetic techniques has provided a valuable toolbox with which we can address these questions, as it allows the selective manipulation of the excitability of cholinergic inputs to the diverse array of cholinergic target fields within cortical and subcortical domains. Here, we review recent papers that use the light-sensitive opsins in the cholinergic system to elucidate the role of ACh in circuits related to attention and emotionally salient behaviors. In particular, we highlight recent optogenetic studies which have tried to disentangle the precise role of ACh in the modulation of cortical-, hippocampal- and striatal-dependent functions.
MIT Department
McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsyn.2014.00024
