Effects of Ncl. Basalis Meynert volume on the Trail-Making-Test are restricted to the left hemisphere.
Cortical acetylcholine released from cells in the basal forebrain facilitates cue detection and improves attentional performance. Cholinergic fibres to the cortex originate from the CH4 cell group, sometimes referred to as the Nucleus basalis of Meynert and the Nucleus subputaminalis of Ayala. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of volumes of cholinergic nuclei on attention and executive function.



The volumes of CH4 and CH4p subregions were measured in a subgroup of 38 subjects (33.5 ± 11 years, 20 females) from a population-based cohort study of smokers and never-smokers who have undergone additional MR imaging. To define regions of interest, we applied a DARTEL-based procedure implemented in SPM8 and a validated probabilistic map of the basal forebrain. Attention and executive function were measured with Trail-Making Test (TMT A+B) and Stroop-Task.



We found a quadratic effect of the left CH4 subregion on performance of the TMT. Extremely small as well as extremely large volumes are associated with poor test performance.



Our results indicate that a small CH4 volume predisposes for a hypocholinergic state, whereas an extremely large volume predisposes for a hypercholinergic state. Both extremes have detrimental effects on attention. Comparable nonlinear effects have already been reported in pharmacological studies on the effects cholinergic agonists on attention.
Department of Anaesthesiology and Surgical Intensive Care Medicine Charité - University Medicine Berlin Berlin Germany.
Florian
F
Lammers
Department of Psychiatry University Hospital Mainz Mainz Germany.
Arian
A
Mobascher
Department of Psychiatry Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf Germany.
Francesco
F
Musso
Institute of Neuroscience & Medicine Research Centre Jülich Jülich Germany; Department of Neurology Faculty of Medicine RWTH Aachen University Aachen Germany.
Nadim Jon
NJ
Shah
Institute of Neuroscience & Medicine Research Centre Jülich Jülich Germany.
Tracy
T
Warbrick
Centre for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Rutgers The State University of New Jersey Newark New Jersey 07102.
Laszlo
L
Zaborszky
Experimental and Clinical Research Centre (ECRC) Charité - University Medicine Berlin Berlin Germany; Pharmaimage Biomarker Solutions GmbH Biotech Park Berlin-Buch Robert-Rössle-Str. 10 13125 Berlin Germany.
Georg
G
Winterer
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D020532:Basal Nucleus of Meynert / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D014145:Trail Making Test / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
Acetylcholine; attention; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); neuroimaging