Event Abstract Back to Event Cholinergic basal forebrain structures are involved in the mediation of the arousal effect of noradrenalin Zoltan Lelkes1*, Tarja P. Heiskanen2 and Dag Stenberg2 1 Department of Physiology, University of Szeged, Hungary 2 Department of Physiology, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Helsinki, Finland The basal forebrain (BF) is involved in the regulation of sleep-wake activity. Cholinergic BF structures contribute to cortical activation. These cholinergic neurons receive noradrenergic input and noradrenalin (NA) excites them via alpha-1 receptors. NA microinjection into the BF enhances wakefulness. Cholinergic BF neurons may be involved in the mediation of the arousal effect of NA, but non-cholinergic ones may contribute as well. In order to elucidate the role of cholinergic BF structures we have tested the arousal effect of methoxamine (MTX), an alpha-1-adrenergic agonist administered into the BF in intact animals and after destroying BF cholinergic cells by immunotoxin 192 IgG-saporin. In 7 male Han-Wistar rats a microdialysis probe targeted into the BF was perfused with artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for 6 h on the baseline day and with CSF in the 1st and MTX (20 mg/ml) in the 2nd 3-h period of the subsequent MTX day. Sleep-wake activity was recorded for 24 h on both days. Then 192 IgG-saporin (0.23 µg in 1 µl) was injected into the BF and 2 weeks later the same experimental schedule with CSF and MTX was repeated again. In intact animals MTX had a robust arousal effect. Non-REM sleep (NREMS) and. REM sleep (REMS) was decreased significantly. Lesion of BF cholinergic structures by saporin diminished the NREMS suppressing effect of MTX in a great extent, REMS suppressing action of MTX was not much influenced. These findings indicate that BF cholinergic neurons may be involved in the mediation of the arousal effect of noradrenalin. Conference: 12th Meeting of the Hungarian Neuroscience Society, Budapest, Hungary, 22 Jan - 24 Jan, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Behavioural neuroscience Citation: Lelkes Z, Heiskanen TP and Stenberg D (2009). Cholinergic basal forebrain structures are involved in the mediation of the arousal effect of noradrenalin. Front. Syst. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: 12th Meeting of the Hungarian Neuroscience Society. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.01.2009.04.098 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 03 Mar 2009; Published Online: 03 Mar 2009. * Correspondence: Zoltan Lelkes, Department of Physiology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary, lelkes@phys.szote.u-szeged.hu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Zoltan Lelkes Tarja P Heiskanen Dag Stenberg Google Zoltan Lelkes Tarja P Heiskanen Dag Stenberg Google Scholar Zoltan Lelkes Tarja P Heiskanen Dag Stenberg PubMed Zoltan Lelkes Tarja P Heiskanen Dag Stenberg Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.