Thalamus, cholinergic innervation

Actions of acetylcholine (ACh) are referred to as muscarinic based on the observation that muscarine acts selectively at certain sites and, quahtatively, produces the same effects as ACh. Peripheral muscarinic acetylcholine receptors are found primarily on autonomic effector cells innervated by postganghonic parasympathetic nerves and on some cells that receive little or no cholinergic innervation but express muscarinic receptors e.g., vascular endothelial cells). There are also muscarinic receptors in ganglia and the adrenal meduUa, where muscarinic stimulation seems to modulate the effects of nicotinic stimulation. Within the central nervous system (CNS), the hippocampus, cortex, and thalamus have high densities of muscarinic receptors. 

Cholinergic neurons within the central reticular core influence sleep patterns (Jones, 1993). The Ch4 nucleus, sending fibers to the cerebral cortex, and the Ch5 cell group, innervating the thalamus and cortex, appear important in... 

In 1926, Otto Loewi discovered that acetylcholine was the principal neurotransmitter of the parasympathetic nervous system. As with other neurotransmitters, acetylcholine is synthesized and stored in vesicles within presynaptic neurons. Ninety percent of the cholinergic neurons in the brain are muscarinic, controlling salivation,sweating, dyspnea, diarrhea, vertigo, confusion, weakness and coma. Acetylcholine binds to muscarinic receptors on smooth muscle cells, innervated by post-synaptic fibers of the parasympathetic nervous system. The thalamus and cerebellar cortex have nicotinic receptors, i diile most other regions of the brain have muscarinic neurons. 

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