Human serial learning: enhancement with arecholine and choline impairment with scopolamine.
Arecholine (4 milligrams), a cholinergic agonist, and choline (10 grams), a precursor of acetylcholine, significantly enhanced serial learning in normal human subjects. The subjects received methscopolamine prior to both arecholine and placebo injections. Conversely, scopolamine (0.5 milligram), a cholinergic antagonist, impaired learning and this impairment was reversed by arecholine and choline and the impairment after scopolamine were inversely proportional to the subject's performance on placebo; that is, "poor" performers were more vulnerable to both the enhancing effect of cholinergic agonist and precursor and the impairment after cholinergic antagonist than "good" performers.
D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000502:physiology; D000328:Adult; D001115:Arecoline / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002794:Choline / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D011976:Receptors, Muscarinic / Q000187:drug effects; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000494:pharmacology*
D011976:Receptors, Muscarinic; D001115:Arecoline; D012601:Scopolamine; D002794:Choline; D000109:Acetylcholine