Cholinergic
cells, which are widely dispersed in the basal forebrain, provide the major
part of acetylcholine found in the cerebral cortex. Patients with Alzheimer's
disease (AD) and in related dementia's have a significant decrease of acetylcholine
in the cortex and pathological changes in cholinergic basal forebrain neurons.
Our laboratory is interested in how the basal forebrain
is organized to modulate distributed neuronal processes within sensory and
higher order cognitive systems in the cerebral cortex . Our studies in the past utilized a
combination of tracer and immunocytochemical methods both at the light and
electron microscopical level to identify elementary synaptic circuits and
transmitter interactions in the basal forebrain (GABAergic/cholinergic,
catecholaminergic/cholinergic, glutamatergic/GABAergic). Such transmitter
interactions may be important in learning and memory, and their impairment
may contribute to attentional deficits seen in neuropsychiatric diseases,
including Alzheimer's disease. Our current research goal is to establish
a functional correlate of the morphologically identified circuits by using
a combination of extracellular electrophysiology, juxtacellular labeling, high density electrophisiology in behaving animal,
EEG monitoring and computational anatomical studies in rodents complemented
with structural and functional imaging studies in humans. Understanding
the cellular mechanism of behavioral conditions that lead to basal forebrain
activation may help the development of site-specific treatment strategies
to ameliorate the cognitive symptoms in these disorders.
Click
Here for a list of selected publications.
|
Anatomy and in vivo electrophisiology of Basal Forbrain - cortical connection
(publ.:
1, 2,3,4,5,6
)
|
6
|
|
|
Study of the
synaptic connections of single electrophysiologically and chemically
identified neurons
(publ.:
1, 2,
3, 4,5,6
)
|
6
|
|
|
Study of connection
and transmitter interactions in BF
(publ.: 1,2,3)
|
|
|
|
Probabilistic mapping and resting state FMR of
BF compartments (publ.:1,2,3)
|
|
|
|
* In collaboration with the Institute of Medicine,
Julich and C. & O. Vogt Institute for Brain Research, Germany
|
|
