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Cognitive Roles Of Anterior And Posterior Pedunculopontine Tegmentum Subregions, Jordan C. Robinson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The pedunculopontine tegmentum (PPT) is part of the mesopontine cholinergic system with distinct anterior and posterior subdivisions. With fast sensory input and descending connections to brainstem locomotor centers, we predict posterior PPT (pPPT) mediates prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle reflex, a form of sensorimotor gating that affects attentional processes. Similar to pPPT cholinergic projections to ventral tegmental area, we predict anterior PPT cholinergic input to substantia nigra regulates dopamine release in striatum, which is important for reinforcement learning. We lesioned the PPT bilaterally in male Sprague Dawley rats with ibotenic acid. Posterior cholinergic cell loss was significantly correlated with prepulse …