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Cholinergic signaling in the striatum and its significance in cognitive flexibility
Smolík, Matyáš ; Janíčková, Helena (advisor) ; Funda, Jiří (referee)
In the striatum, cholinergic interneurons (CINs) contribute to the control of behaviour, motor and cognitive functions. Recently, number of studies have shown a special significance of CINs in the control of cognitive flexibility: the ability to learn new behavioural strategies when requirements of the environment change. Along with working memory, cognitive inhibition, attention control and other cognitive domains, cognitive flexibility belongs to executive functions. Cognitive flexibility impairment is present in a range of neuropsychiatric disorders and thus, understanding its mechanisms is of outstanding importance. The proposed work will first describe anatomy and cellular composition of the striatum and its functions. It will further describe cholinergic system with a special attention to cholinergic signalling in the striatum. The final chapter of the general part of the thesis will focus on cognitive flexibility. After discussing the involved structures and systems separately, the thesis will eventually provide comprehensive review of currently available studies investigating how striatal CINs contribute to brain's ability to replace old concepts with new and more efficient ones.
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