Acetylcholine signaling in the medial prefrontal cortex mediates the ability to learn an active avoidance response following learned helplessness training.

ABSTRACT: Increased brain levels of acetylcholine (ACh) are observed in subsets of patients with depression and increasing ACh levels chronically can precipitate stress-related behaviors in humans and animals. Conversely, optimal ACh levels are required for cognition and memory. We hypothesize that ACh signaling is important for encoding both appetitive and stress-relevant memories, but that excessive increases in ACh result in a negative encoding bias in which memory formation of a stressful event is aberrantly strengthened, potentially contributing to the excessive focus on negative experience that could lead to depressive symptoms. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is critical to control the limbic system to filter exteroceptive cues and stress-related circuits. We therefore evaluated the role

SUBMITTER: Abdulla ZI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10542494 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature