EXCITATORY AND INHIBITORY AMINO-ACIDS IN THE CEREBRAL-CORTEX OF NUCLEUS BASALIS MAGNOCELLULARIS LESIONED RATS

It is well known that pathways arising from the nucleus basalis magnoc ellularis in the basal forebrain which terminate in the cerebral corte x are involved in cognitive function. The cholinergic system is genera lly thought to play a large part in these processes from lesion, pharm acological and transplantation studies. With increasing evidence sugge sting the involvement of amino acid transmitters in learning and memor y processes, it is of interest to also evaluate possible changes in th e levels of amino acid transmitters in the cortex of nucleus basalis m agnocellularis-lesioned rats. In the present study, 9 cortical amino a cids were measured in rats with bilateral lesions of the nucleus basal is magnocellularis. We measured significant reductions in aspartate, a lanine and gamma-aminobutyric acid; these were 80%, 75%, and 81%, resp ectively, of control brain values. These results suggest that changes in the amino acid content of the cerebral cortex following lesion of t he nucleus basalis magnocellularis-lesioned rat should perhaps also be considered when evaluating behavioral effects in this model.