An impressive paper by Couey et al. in Neuron demonstrates how central nicotinic receptors act to down regulate neocortical spike time dependent plasticity (click on the link above).
Now, imagine neocortical acetylcholine tone reduced as a result of cell loss in the basal forebrain early in Alzheimer’s Disease. The result would be apparently greater potentiation at cortical SDTP glutamatergic synapses. Kind of counter-intuitive, no?
Jim
Discoverers and Discoveries 