Our knowledge of cholinergic synaptic transmission in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) has expanded enormously since the early 1930's, at which time O. Loewi discovered chemical neurotransmission through acetylcholine (ACh) and the pharmacological actions of ACh were described by H. Dale and his colleagues. Description of ACh's actions and receptors in various parts of the brain was followed by a detailed analysis of ACh's synthesis, release mechanism, removal from the synaptic cleft, modes of agonist-receptor interactions, properties of regulated conductances and of the pre-and postsynaptic modulation of cholinergic synapses. Our knowledge has been increasingly consolidat ing, leading us to the recent clarification of the structure of the periph eral nicotinic receptor-ion channel and its functional properties. It is appropriate to maintain the claim that the fundamentals of our under standing of synaptic transmission come from studies on cholinergic synapses in the PNS. Contrastingly, views held on the role of cholinergic synapses in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) are extremely controversial, although it has been clear for some time that ACh is present in the brain. Illustrating this, no unanimous view is held on the role of nicotinic receptors in the CNS. There is one notable exception to this confusion: Studies begun by J. C. Eccles and associates in the 1960's and completed by D. R. Curtis and R. W.

Inhalt
Cholinergic neurons, pathways and synapses.- Behavioral neuroanatomy of cholinergic innervation in the primate cerebral cortex.- Afferent connections of the forebrain cholinergic projection neurons, with special reference to monoaminergic and peptidergic fibers.- Central cholinergic synapses: The septohippocampal system as a model.- Cholinergic-GABAergic synaptic interconnections in the rat amygdaloid complex: An electron microscopic double immunostaining study.- Topography of ?NGF receptor-positive and AChE-reactive neurons in the central nervous system.- Chol-1: A cholinergic-specific ganglioside of possible significance in central nervous system neurochemistry and neuropathology.- Acetylcholine-induced postsynaptic potentials and excitatory changes.- Pharmacological characterization of muscarinic responses in rat hippocampal pyramidal cells.- Mediation of acetylcholine's excitatory actions in central neurons.- Presynaptic cholinergic action in the hippocampus.- Opposing effects of acetylcholine on the two classes of voltage-dependent calcium channels in hippocampal neurons.- Muscarinic slow EPSPs in neostriatal and hippocampal neurons in vitro.- Carbachol and pirenzepine discriminate effects mediated by two muscarinic receptor subtypes on hippocampal neurons in vitro.- Cholinergic activation of medial pontine reticular formation neurons in vitro.- Cholinergic responses in human neocortical neurones.- Cholinergic modulation of hippocampal epileptic activity in vitro.- The cholinergic nucleus basalis: A key structure in neocortical arousal.- Cholinergic mechanisms in the telencephalon of cat and chicken.- Cholinergic receptor types and their modulation.- Central nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the chicken and Drosophila CNS: Biochemical and molecular biologyapproaches.- Modulation of the sensitivity of nicotinic receptors in autonomic ganglia.- Muscarinic modulation of acetylcholine release: Receptor subtypes and possible mechanisms.- Characterization of muscarinic receptors modulating acetylcholine release in the rat neostriatum.- Distribution of cholinergic receptors in the rat and human neocortex.- Acetylcholine and plasticity of the CNS.- Effects of chronic in vivo replacement of choline with a false cholinergic precursor.- Development of the septohippocampal projection in vitro.- A role of basic fibroblast growth factor for rat septal neurons.- Survival, growth and function of damaged cholinergic neurons.- Restoration of cholinergic circuitry in the hippocampus by foetal grafts.- Effects of colchicine treatment on the cholinergic septohippocampal system.- Effect of early visual pattern deprivation on development and laminar distribution of cholinergic markers in rat visual cortex.- The role of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in ocular dominance plasticity.- Acetylcholine-dopamine balance in striatum: Is it still a target for antiparkinsonian therapy?.