Centre for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bordeaux, CNRS UMR 5228, Avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence Cedex, France.
Behav Brain Res. 2011 Aug 10;221(2):424-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.11.052. Epub 2010 Dec 3.
Even though "procholinergic" drugs are almost the sole kind of treatments currently used as cognitive enhancers in patients with Alzheimer's disease, the role of acetylcholine (ACh) in learning and memory is still poorly understood. In this short review, we focus on the septo-hippocampal cholinergic system and try to demonstrate that understanding ACh-memory relationships requires taking into account two characteristics of memory function. First, this function is polymorphic and relies on multiple neural systems. It appears that hippocampal ACh may not only modulate specific computational function of the hippocampus but also contributes to the functional coordination of multiple memory systems in a task-dependent manner. Second, memorization implies different phases which are differentially regulated by ACh. Namely, several lines of evidence suggest a "biphasic" involvement with hippocampal ACh facilitating memory encoding but hampering memory consolidation and retrieval, and low hippocampal ACh promoting consolidation of declarative memory. By spotting major determinants of memory modulation by hippocampal ACh, we hope that the present non exhaustive review will help to improve our understanding of the complexity of ACh-memory relationships.
尽管“拟胆碱能”药物几乎是目前阿尔茨海默病患者认知增强治疗的唯一选择，但乙酰胆碱（ACh）在学习和记忆中的作用仍知之甚少。在这篇简短的综述中，我们重点介绍了隔海马胆碱能系统，并试图证明，要理解 ACh-记忆关系，需要考虑记忆功能的两个特征。首先，该功能具有多态性，依赖于多个神经系统。海马 ACh 似乎不仅可以调节海马体的特定计算功能，而且还可以以任务依赖的方式促进多个记忆系统的功能协调。其次，记忆需要不同的阶段，这些阶段受到 ACh 的不同调节。有几条证据表明，海马 ACh 具有“双相”作用，促进记忆编码，但阻碍记忆巩固和检索，而海马 ACh 水平低则促进陈述性记忆的巩固。通过发现海马 ACh 调节记忆的主要决定因素，我们希望本综述能帮助我们更好地理解 ACh-记忆关系的复杂性。
