The Role of Cholinergic System in Novel Object Recognition

Abstract In the present chapter we present a summary of over 25 years experience with the object novelty recognition test (NOR) in the study of the role of the brain cholinergic system in rats. We describe and discuss the accumulated evidence obtained though lesion interventions and pharmacological manipulations. Acquisition and memory performance in NOR is disrupted by administration of muscarinic and nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonists, by selective lesions of brain cholinergic neurons, and by age-related decline in cholinergic function. Learning and memory deficits are reversed with drugs that enhance cholinergic activity NOR test proved to be a useful tool for investigating the effects of direct or indirect cholinomimetic drugs on memory mechanisms.