Differential role of muscarinic transmission within the entorhinal cortex and basolateral amygdala in the processing of irrelevant stimuli.

ABSTRACT: Cholinergic projections to the entorhinal cortex (EC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA) mediate distinct cognitive processes through muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs). In this study, we sought to further differentiate the role of muscarinic transmission in these regions in cognition, using the latent inhibition (LI) phenomenon. LI is a cross-species phenomenon manifested as poorer conditioning to a stimulus experienced as irrelevant during an earlier stage of repeated non-reinforced pre-exposure to that stimulus, and is considered to index the ability to ignore, or to in-attend to, irrelevant stimuli. Given our recent findings that systemic administration of the mAChR antagonist scopolamine can produce two contrasting LI abnormalities in rats, ie, abolish LI under conditions yieldin

SUBMITTER: Barak S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3055402 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature