The role of hippocampal cholinergic mechanisms in the aquisition of a barpress response.
The role of hippocampal cholinergic mechanisms in learning a bar-press response reinforced with food was investigated. Firstly, an interstrain comparison showed that mice having a low choline acetyltransferase activity in the dorsal hippocampus were quicker to associate the barpress with reinforcement. Secondly, when the activity of this enzyme was reduced by a subseizure electrical stimulation of the hippocampus learning was accelerated. It is suggested that acetylcholine availability at the hippocampal synapses slowed the apparition of these learned responses.
D000110:Acetylcholinesterase / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010275:Parasympathetic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity
D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase; D000110:Acetylcholinesterase