Acetylcholine was one of the first fast neurotransmitters discovered and measured in synaptic recordings - and its popularity as a target for altering neurotransmission has not decreased. Since its discovery, researchers have found a central role for acetylcholine in numerous functions including autonomic regulation, arousal, attention, memory, motivation, and mood. Disruption of cholinergic transmission has been found in various neuropathology, from Alzheimer’s disease and Schizophrenia to Drug Addiction. Despite cholinergic receptors are a well-known class of ionotropic and metabotropic targets, signaling mechanisms, cholinergic and anti-cholinergic drugs including agonists, antagonists, and allosteric modulators are consistently under development for treatments of central nervous system pathology.
In this Research Topic we are diving deep into the molecular mechanisms of cholinergic transmission in motivation and cognition. This topic aims to explore recent developments in uncovering the molecular mechanisms that control synaptic, cellular, and systems of cholinergic function, and to further our understanding of how these affect memory, learning and motivated behaviors.
We welcome submissions of primary data showing unique function of molecular mechanisms of cholinergic transmission that control or modulate motivation and cognition-related brain systems and/or behaviors, as well as reviews on our current understanding of how the cholinergic system is involved in information processing.
Acetylcholine was one of the first fast neurotransmitters discovered and measured in synaptic recordings - and its popularity as a target for altering neurotransmission has not decreased. Since its discovery, researchers have found a central role for acetylcholine in numerous functions including autonomic regulation, arousal, attention, memory, motivation, and mood. Disruption of cholinergic transmission has been found in various neuropathology, from Alzheimer’s disease and Schizophrenia to Drug Addiction. Despite cholinergic receptors are a well-known class of ionotropic and metabotropic targets, signaling mechanisms, cholinergic and anti-cholinergic drugs including agonists, antagonists, and allosteric modulators are consistently under development for treatments of central nervous system pathology.
In this Research Topic we are diving deep into the molecular mechanisms of cholinergic transmission in motivation and cognition. This topic aims to explore recent developments in uncovering the molecular mechanisms that control synaptic, cellular, and systems of cholinergic function, and to further our understanding of how these affect memory, learning and motivated behaviors.
We welcome submissions of primary data showing unique function of molecular mechanisms of cholinergic transmission that control or modulate motivation and cognition-related brain systems and/or behaviors, as well as reviews on our current understanding of how the cholinergic system is involved in information processing.
