Neurotransmitters/agonist and their effect on behaviour

chemical is transmitted through neurons through the nervous system
nervous system allow the reciving and reacting to stimulus

Central nervous system (CNS) = brain and spinal cord
Peripheral nervous system (PNS) = Rest of the body

acetylcholine

Neutransmitter that plays a role in memory formation, spatial navigation, and learning.

a chemical or drug that binds to a synaptic receptor and increases or mimics the effect of a specific neurotransmitter. By strengthening the neurotransmitter's natural message, agonists amplify its impact on behavior and cognitive processes.

They can be endogenous (produced internally) or exogenous (introduced externally)

acetycholine inhibitor

Antonova (2011)

To determine how blocking the acetylcholine receptors with scopolamine affects spatial memory.

Lab experiment. Double-blind experiment
20 healthy male adult age 28 year
2 conditions: Injected with either scopolamine or a placebo 70-90 min before the experimental task
. Participants were put into fMRI scan while play a virtual reality arena task. Partipents had to navigate an arena to reach a pole. After learning where the pole is, screen will go black fo 30 seconds. Partipents reappared at new starting point and had to use spatial memory to determine how to get to pole.

the participants' brain activity were measured for 6 trials. Participants returned 3-4 weeks later and redid the test with opposite treatment to original study.

When the participants were injected with scopolamine, they demonstrated a significant reduction in the activation of the hippocampus compared to when they received a placebo. This suggests that scopolamine impairs memorization of new information by decreasing spiking activity within the hippocampus.

It appears that acetylcholine could play a key role in the encoding of spatial memories in humans.

shows that saplamine acts as a agonist that inhibts acetycholine