Beelke M, Sannita W G
Department of Motor Science and Rehabilitation, University of Genoa, Italy.
Methods Find Exp Clin Pharmacol. 2002;24 Suppl D:113-7.
Acetylcholine (ACh) function is thought not only to play a significant role in memory, learning and other cognitive processes, but studies at a cellular level and in vivo indicate an important role for ACh in vision as well, especially for visual information processing. A suitable experimental model of geriatric memory impairment and Alzheimer dementia that pharmacologically blocks the brain muscarinic transmission has been proposed. This model has been extensively used also as an attempt to test cholinergic drugs in the absence of detailed knowledge of sites and mechanisms of ACh action and as test condition in the investigation of the role of ACh in visual information processing. Alzheimer's dementia results from complex neuron alterations, rather than simply reflecting ACh impoverishment, also involving the visual system, with substantial loss of retinal ganglion cells and alterations in visual information processing. Viewing all these data as a whole, nonspecific ACh actions on cognition, such as arousal or attention, contribute in modulating the function-specific action of ACh in information processing, both at cognitive and visual level.
乙酰胆碱（ACh）的功能不仅被认为在记忆、学习及其他认知过程中发挥重要作用，而且细胞水平和体内研究表明，ACh在视觉方面也起着重要作用，尤其是在视觉信息处理方面。已经提出了一种合适的老年记忆障碍和阿尔茨海默病痴呆的实验模型，该模型在药理学上阻断大脑毒蕈碱传递。在缺乏对ACh作用位点和机制详细了解的情况下，这个模型也被广泛用于测试胆碱能药物，并且作为研究ACh在视觉信息处理中作用的测试条件。阿尔茨海默病痴呆是由复杂的神经元改变引起的，而不是简单地反映ACh缺乏，它还涉及视觉系统，导致视网膜神经节细胞大量丢失以及视觉信息处理改变。从整体上看待所有这些数据，ACh对认知的非特异性作用，如唤醒或注意力，有助于调节ACh在认知和视觉水平的信息处理中特定功能的作用。
