Acetylcholine systems

Steriade, M. (2004). Acetylcholine systems and rhythmic activities during the waking - sleep cycle. Prog. Brain Res. 145, 179-6. 

Jacobs, B. L., and Jones, B. E. (1978) The role of central monoamine and acetylcholine systems in sleep-wakefulness states Mediation or modulation In Cholinergic-Monoaminergic Interactions in the Brain, edited by L. Butcher, pp. 271-290. Academic Press, New York. 

Nature is economical in her means. She uses many of the same chemicals to accomplish her nervous purposes within the brain that she has already used to the same ends throughout the body. The good news is that once you have worked out the biochemistry and pharmacology of a neuromodulator in the body, you can apply a lot of what you know to its action in the brain. The bad news is that every time you target, for example, the acetylcholine system of the brain, you also hit the body. That means that the heart, the bowel, the salivary glands, and all the rest of the organs innervated by the autonomic nervous system are influenced. What is worse, the target sites within the brain may not only be as spatially dispersed as in the periphery, but may also be as functionally differentiated ... 

The revival of interest in acetylcholine s role in schizophrenic pathogenesis is symmetrical to a new interest in dopamine s role in dream psychosis. Could it be that in both psychoses the coactivation of dopamine and acetylcholine systems is necessary but only sufficient if either the other aminergic systems are in abeyance (dream and depression psychosis) or the dopamine system overpowers the cholinergic system (manic and schizophrenic psychosis) ... 

Figure 1—1. Electroencephalogram recorded over the frontal lobes showing the presence of an anticipation wave with an intact acetylcholine system (labeled pre) and without a functioning acetylcholine system (labeled post). The sharp vertical spikes are associated with a bell ringing at the beginning and end of the recording.

The interactions between the muscarinic acetylcholine system and the dopaminergic system are bidirectional and dopamine also has a modulatory effect on the release of acetylcholine (Di Chiara et al., 1994). Dopamine D2 receptors (Alcantara et al., 2003) and dopamine D5 receptors (Berlanga et al., 2005) are localized on cholinergic neurons and interneurons in the striatum, nucleus accumbens, forebrain, and diencephalon. 

Kasa P, Bansaghy K, Rakonczay Z, Gulya K (1982) Postnatal development of the acetylcholine system in different parts of the rat cerebellum. J. Neurochem., 39, 1726-1732. 

De Robertis, E., Rodriguez de Lores Arnaiz, G., Salganicoff, L., Pellegrino de Iraldi, A. and Zieher, L. M. (1963) Isolation of synaptic vesicles and structural organization of the acetylcholine system within brain nerve endings. J. Neurochem., 10,225-235. 

Warburton, D. M. (1969) Behavioural effects of central and peripheral changes in acetylcholine systems. J. comp, physiol. Psychol., 68,56-64. 

---