Cholinergic blockade reveals a role for human hippocampal theta in memory encoding but not retrieval.

ABSTRACT: Cholinergic dysfunction is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease and other memory disorders. Yet, the neurophysiological mechanisms linking cholinergic signaling to memory remain poorly understood. In this study, we administered scopolamine, a muscarinic cholinergic antagonist, to neurosurgical patients with intracranial electrodes as they performed an associative recognition memory task. When scopolamine was present at encoding, we observed disruptions to hippocampal slow theta oscillations (2-4 Hz), with selective impairments to recollection-based memory. However, when scopolamine was present during retrieval alone, we observed disruptions to slow theta without impaired memory performance. These disruptions included dose-dependent reductions in theta power, theta phase reset, and encoding-re

SUBMITTER: Gedankien T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12132215 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature