Elimination of the vesicular acetylcholine transporter in the forebrain causes hyperactivity and deficits in spatial memory and long-term potentiation
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, which innervate the hippocampus and cortex, have been implicated in many forms of cognitive function. Immunolesion-based methods in animal models have been widely used to study the role of acetylcholine (ACh) neurotransmission in these processes, with variable results. Cholinergic neurons have been shown to release both glutamate and ACh, making it difficult to deduce the specific contribution of each neurotransmitter on cognition when neurons are eliminated. Understanding the precise roles of ACh in learning and memory is critical because drugs that preserve ACh are used as treatment for cognitive deficits. It is therefore important to define which cholinergic-dependent behaviors could be improved pharmacologically. Here we investigate the contributions of forebrain ACh on hippocampal synaptic plasticity and cognitive behavior by selective elimination of the vesicular ACh transporter, which interferes with synaptic storage and release of ACh. We show that elimination of vesicular ACh transporter in the hippocampus results in deficits in long-term potentiation and causes selective deficits in spatial memory. Moreover, decreased cholinergic tone in the forebrain is linked to hyperactivity, without changes in anxiety or depression-related behavior. These data uncover the specific contribution of forebrain cholinergic tone for synaptic plasticity and behavior. Moreover, these experiments define specific cognitive functions that could be targeted by cholinergic replacement therapy.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".