Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 7-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Cholinergic basal forebrain is critical for social transmission of food preferences

Cholinergic basal forebrain is critical for social transmission of food preferences Studies using selective lesions of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons suggest that these neurons play a role in attentional processing, but not learning and memory. However, the tests of learning and memory used thus far have been restricted largely to spatial tasks. In the present study, we examined whether the cholinergic basal forebrain plays a role in a form of nonspatial associative memory, the social transmission of food preferences. Sham‐operated control rats were compared to rats with 192 IgG‐saporin lesions of the medial septum/diagonal band cholinergic projections to hippocampus or nucleus basalis magnocellularis/substantia innominata cholinergic projections to neocortex. Both lesions impaired 24‐h retention of a learned social food preference relative to controls, despite performance on an immediate retention trial that was indistinguishable from controls. Moreover, 24‐h retention of the socially learned food preference correlated strongly with cholinergic enzymatic activity in the neocortex, but not in the hippocampus. Immunohistochemical data confirmed significant and selective lesion‐induced cholinergic depletions in the intended brain regions. These data provide evidence that the cholinergic basal forebrain, particularly the cholinergic projection to neocortex, is involved in the formation and/or retrieval of social memories related to food preference, and suggest a role for cortical acetylcholine in consolidation of associative memory processes. Hippocampus 2000;10:729–738. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Hippocampus Wiley

Cholinergic basal forebrain is critical for social transmission of food preferences

Download PDF
10 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/cholinergic-basal-forebrain-is-critical-for-social-transmission-of-pj0Gx0Mlfb

References (54)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
ISSN
1050-9631
eISSN
1098-1063
DOI
10.1002/1098-1063(2000)10:6<729::AID-HIPO1010>3.0.CO;2-M
pmid
11153718
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Studies using selective lesions of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons suggest that these neurons play a role in attentional processing, but not learning and memory. However, the tests of learning and memory used thus far have been restricted largely to spatial tasks. In the present study, we examined whether the cholinergic basal forebrain plays a role in a form of nonspatial associative memory, the social transmission of food preferences. Sham‐operated control rats were compared to rats with 192 IgG‐saporin lesions of the medial septum/diagonal band cholinergic projections to hippocampus or nucleus basalis magnocellularis/substantia innominata cholinergic projections to neocortex. Both lesions impaired 24‐h retention of a learned social food preference relative to controls, despite performance on an immediate retention trial that was indistinguishable from controls. Moreover, 24‐h retention of the socially learned food preference correlated strongly with cholinergic enzymatic activity in the neocortex, but not in the hippocampus. Immunohistochemical data confirmed significant and selective lesion‐induced cholinergic depletions in the intended brain regions. These data provide evidence that the cholinergic basal forebrain, particularly the cholinergic projection to neocortex, is involved in the formation and/or retrieval of social memories related to food preference, and suggest a role for cortical acetylcholine in consolidation of associative memory processes. Hippocampus 2000;10:729–738. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Journal

Hippocampus – Wiley

Published: Jan 1, 2000

There are no references for this article.