Learning disturbances following excitotoxic lesion of cholinergic pedunculo-pontine nucleus in the rat.

Compared to brain anterior cholinergic systems such as the septo-hippocampal and nucleus basalis-cortical pathways, posterior cholinergic groups have received little attention with respect to their involvement in learning and memory. In this study, the effect of lesion of the cholinergic pedunculo-pontine cell bodies (PPN) by the excitotoxin quisqualic acid was investigated on spontaneous locomotor activity and learning in rats. Behavioral tasks designed to test both reference memory (cross maze and water maze) or working memory (radial maze) were used. PPN lesion had no effect on initial nor on nocturnal locomotor activity in a circular corridor. The lesion disrupted learning in the water and radial mazes, but was without influence on acquisition in the cross maze. The difference in results obtained in the two tasks designed to test reference memory (cross maze and water maze) indicated that the disturbance depended on task difficulty rather than on a particular memory component. It is suggested that the PPN is involved in the sustained attention required to perform correctly in water and radial mazes. The PPN cannot therefore be considered as a uniquely extrapyramidal structure. In addition to its descending outputs, the PPN has ascending connections to the neocortex, either directly or indirectly via the thalamus, and so pathological changes in this region may be partly responsible for the cognitive disorders of aging or those observed in various neurodegenerative conditions.