Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Control Encoding and Retrieval of Associative Recognition Memory through Plasticity in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex

Abstract

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) expressed in the medial prefrontal cortex have critical roles in cognitive function. However, whether nAChRs are required for associative recognition memory and the mechanisms by which nAChRs may contribute to mnemonic processing are not known. We demonstrate that nAChRs in the prefrontal cortex exhibit subtype-specific roles in associative memory encoding and retrieval. We present evidence that these separate roles of nAChRs may rely on bidirectional modulation of plasticity at synaptic inputs to the prefrontal cortex that are essential for associative recognition memory.

Keywords: acetylcholine; associative recognition memory; medial prefrontal cortex; nicotinic receptor; plasticity.