Cited by 5,545Cholinesterase and Neurodegenerative DiseasesDementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

The cholinergic hypothesis of geriatric memory dysfunction

Bartus, Raymond T., Dean, Reginald L., Beer, Bernard, Lippa, Arnold S.·1982·Science

Abstract

Biochemical, electrophysiological, and pharmacological evidence supporting a role for cholinergic dysfunction in age-related memory disturbances is critically reviewed. An attempt has been made to identify pseudoissues, resolve certain controversies, and clarify misconceptions that have occurred in the literature. Significant cholinergic dysfunctions occur in the aged and demented central nervous system, relationships between these changes and loss of memory exist, similar memory deficits can be artificially induced by blocking cholinergic mechanisms in young subjects, and under certain tightly controlled conditions reliable memory improvements in aged subjects can be achieved after cholinergic stimulation. Conventional attempts to reduce memory impairments in clinical trials hav not been therapeutically successful, however. Possible explanations for these disappointments are given and directions for future laboratory and clinical studies are suggested.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1126/science.7046051

Cites

158 of 158 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Cholinergic neurons in the nucleus basalis of Meynert and other septal nuclei are lost in Alzheimer disease, causing a general cholinergic deficit.

    “During the course of AD pathogenesis, cholinergic neurons in the nucleus basalis of Meynert and other septal nuclei that project widely throughout the cortex are lost, causing a general cholinergic deficit (Bartus et al., 1982).”

    From Alzheimer Disease: An Update on Pathobiology and Treatment Strategies (2019) · cites this paper as Bartus et al., 1982

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Bartus, R. T., Dean, R. L., Beer, B., & Lippa, A. S.
Affiliations
  • NYU Langone Health (US)
  • Department of CNS Research, Lederle Laboratories of American Cyanamid Co., Pearl River, New York 10965.
Venue
Science
Published
1982-07-30
Volume
217
Issue
4558
Pages
408-414
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
OpenAlex
W1994067502
Cited by
5,545
References
158
Citations by year
2026: 66 · 2025: 98 · 2024: 90 · 2023: 107 · 2022: 130 · 2021: 142 · 2020: 123 · 2019: 119 · 2018: 130 · 2017: 116 · 2016: 122 · 2015: 111 · 2014: 139 · 2013: 145 · 2012: 132
FWCI
11.90
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Cholinesterase and Neurodegenerative Diseases
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
Keywords
cholinergic hypothesis, age-related memory impairment, cholinergic dysfunction, dementia, cholinergic stimulation, cholinergic blockade
MeSH terms
Acetylcholine, Adult, Aged, Aging, Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Brain Chemistry, Choline, Choline O-Acetyltransferase, Cognition, Forecasting, Humans, Memory, Memory Disorders, Models, Neurological, Parasympathetic Nervous System, Parasympathomimetics, Phosphatidylcholines, Receptors, Muscarinic, Mice, Rats

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review