Dose-dependent effect of donepezil administration on long-term enhancement of visually evoked potentials and cholinergic receptor overexpression in rat visual cortex

Cholinergic Potentiation Improves Perceptual-Cognitive Training of Healthy Young Adults in Three Dimensional Multiple Object Tracking

“…Given the role of ACh in learning, pairing visual training with ACh enhancement may modulate the tuning of the neurons for the trained stimuli (Rokem and Silver, 2010). In fact, studies in rats and humans have shown the role of cholinergic enhancement of visual training on the potentiation of visual capacities such as visual cortical responsiveness (Kang et al, 2014a; Chamoun et al, 2016), contrast sensitivity (Soma et al, 2013; Boucart et al, 2015), motion direction discrimination (Rokem and Silver, 2010) and texture discrimination (Beer et al, 2013). In addition, given the role of the cholinergic system in attention and the role of attention in perceptual learning (Ahissar and Hochstein, 1993), pairing visual training with ACh enhancement may fine-tune the allocation of attention in this multi-focal attention task.…”

“…Accordingly, AChEIs improve performance of people in visual attention tasks (Demeter and Sarter, 2013) and behavioral tasks that require voluntary attention (Bentley et al, 2004). In rats, donepezil (DPZ), the AChEI most universally used for the clinical treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, has been demonstrated to increase the amplitude of visually evoked potentials when administered during a visual training period (Chamoun et al, 2016). DPZ also improves performance in diverse cognitive behavioral tasks (Wise et al, 2007; Cutuli et al, 2008; Soma et al, 2013).…”

Cholinergic Potentiation of Restoration of Visual Function after Optic Nerve Damage in Rats

“…There is growing evidence that the cholinergic system is involved in attention, cortical and synaptic plasticity, and potentiation of the cortical responses to visual stimulation. In rats, electrical or pharmacological stimulation of the cholinergic system when coupled with visual training enables long-term enhancement of responses in the visual cortex [ 10 – 13 ]. Particularly, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), which prevent the degradation of the acetylcholine (ACh) and enable the buildup of ACh at the synapse, could be used for long-term enhancement of visual experience.…”

“…AChEIs, such as donepezil (DPZ), are used for sustaining ACh action and treating the dementia symptoms in mild Alzheimer's disease [ 14 ]. Studies have shown that AChEIs enhance visual and cognitive capacities in both animals and humans [ 11 – 13 , 15 – 18 ]. They also improve performance in behavioural tasks such as radial water maze, spatial recognition, and contrast sensitivity detection for healthy and hypocholinergic rats [ 18 – 21 ].…”

“…They also improve performance in behavioural tasks such as radial water maze, spatial recognition, and contrast sensitivity detection for healthy and hypocholinergic rats [ 18 – 21 ]. Moreover, combining cholinergic enhancement via DPZ administration with repetitive visual training increases the visual cortical responsiveness in healthy rats [ 13 ] and the learning in a perceptual-cognitive task in healthy young humans [ 17 ]. Therefore, administration of DPZ could be an effective method of cholinergic enhancement to potentiate the improvement of residual vision in visually deficient subjects.…”