Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-18-2021

Publication Title

Front Psychiatry

Keywords

JMG

JAX Source

Front Psychiatry 2021 Oct 18; 12:737897

Volume

12

First Page

737897

Last Page

737897

ISSN

1664-0640

PMID

34733190

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.737897

Abstract

Learning is a critical behavioral process that is influenced by many neurobiological systems. We and others have reported that acetylcholinergic signaling plays a vital role in learning capabilities, and it is especially important for contextual fear learning. Since cholinergic signaling is affected by genetic background, we examined the genetic relationship between activity levels of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), the primary enzyme involved in the acetylcholine metabolism, and learning using a panel of 20 inbred mouse strains. We measured conditioned fear behavior and AChE activity in the dorsal hippocampus, ventral hippocampus, and cerebellum. Acetylcholinesterase activity varied among inbred mouse strains in all three brain regions, and there were significant inter-strain differences in contextual and cued fear conditioning. There was an inverse correlation between fear conditioning outcomes and AChE levels in the dorsal hippocampus. In contrast, the ventral hippocampus and cerebellum AChE levels were not correlated with fear conditioning outcomes. These findings strengthen the link between acetylcholine activity in the dorsal hippocampus and learning, and they also support the premise that the dorsal hippocampus and ventral hippocampus are functionally discrete.

Comments

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

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