The relationship between cholinergic system brain structure and function in healthy adults and patients with mild cognitive impairment

Abstract We assessed the structure–function relationship of the human cholinergic system and hypothesized that structural measures are associated with short-latency sensory afferent inhibition (SAI), an electrophysiological measure of central cholinergic signal transmission. Healthy volunteers (n = 36) and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 20) underwent median nerve SAI and 3T structural MRI to determine the volume of the basal forebrain and the thalamus. Patients with MCI had smaller basal forebrain (p 10% SAI) had more basal forebrain volume than non-responders (p = 0.004) or patients with MCI (p