title: Distinct roles of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons in spatial and object recognition memory.
abstract: Recognition memory requires processing of various types of information such as objects and locations. Impairment in recognition memory is a prominent feature of amnesia and a symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Basal forebrain cholinergic neurons contain two major groups, one localized in the medial septum (MS)/vertical diagonal band of Broca (vDB), and the other in the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM). The roles of these cell groups in recognition memory have been debated, and it remains unclear how they contribute to it. We use a genetic cell targeting technique to selectively eliminate cholinergic cell groups and then test spatial and object recognition memory through different behavioural tasks. Eliminating MS/vDB neurons impairs spatial but not object recognition memory in the reference and working memory tasks, whereas NBM elimination undermines only object recognition memory in the working memory task. These impairments are restored by treatment with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, anti-dementia drugs for AD. Our results highlight that MS/vDB and NBM cholinergic neurons are not only implicated in recognition memory but also have essential roles in different types of recognition memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Sciences, Graduate School of Integrated Arts &Sciences, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8521, Japan.
authors.forename: Kana
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan.
authors.forename: Kayo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishizawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Sciences, Graduate School of Integrated Arts &Sciences, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8521, Japan.
authors.forename: Shogo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakata
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Molecular Genetics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan [2] Japan Science and Technology Agency, Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, Kawaguchi 332-0012, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuto
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D059329:Cholinergic Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D016548:Prosencephalon / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*