[Syndrome of partial cholinergic deafferentation of the cortical mantle--a concept for describing the brain-behavior relationship in dementia diseases].
[Syndrome of partial cholinergic deafferentation of the cortical mantle--a concept for describing the brain-behavior relationship in dementia diseases].
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Original abstract
The identification of morphological and biochemical changes in neurodegenerative disorders with both common and different patterns of neuropsychological dysfunction may help to define the neurobiological substrate of amnesic and dementing disorders, and, furthermore, will give some insight into the neuronal organisation of memory processes. The concept of "subcortical and cortical dementia" and the "cholinergic hypothesis of memory dysfunction" reflect two different theoretical approaches which relate psychopathological disturbances in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Korsakoff's psychosis and related conditions either to structurally or to chemically defined systems of the brain. In order to overcome limitations arising from this dichotomy of structural and chemical approaches to the brain-behaviour-relationship, the concept of a "syndrome of partial cholinergic deafferentation of the cortical mantle" is suggested in the present paper. This concept is supported by evidence derived from the biochemical, morphological and behavioural sequelae of acute and chronic experimental interference with the cholinergic afferentation of the cortical mantle by the application of neurotoxins, by pharmacological intervention and by neurotransplantation in rat. Regarding the cholinergic projection neurons of the basal forebrain and upper brainstem as components of the reticular activating system, the involvement of the cholinergic afferentation of the cortical mantle in the mediation of memory processes and their dysfunction under the conditions of neurodegenerative disorders can be explained on the basis of the "Hippocampal Memory Indexing Theory" of Teyler and DiScenna.