Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. (context biochemistry English) Of, pertaining to, activated by, producing or having the same function as acetylcholine
WordNet
adj. releasing or activated by acetylcholine or a related compound [ant: anticholinergic]
Wikipedia
In general, the word choline refers to the various quaternary ammonium salts containing the N,N,N-trimethylethanolammonium cation. Found in most animal tissues, choline is a primary component of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and functions with inositol as a basic constituent of lecithin. It prevents fat deposits in the liver and facilitates the movement of fats into the cells. The richest sources of choline are liver, kidney, brain, wheat germ, brewer's yeast, and egg yolk. Neurologically, cholinergic is the abbreviated term referring to acetylcholine. The parasympathetic nervous system, which uses acetylcholine almost exclusively to send its messages, is said to be almost entirely cholinergic. Neuromuscular junctions, preganglionic neurons of the sympathetic nervous system, the basal forebrain, and brain stem complexes are also cholinergic. In addition, the receptor for the merocrine sweat glands are also cholinergic, since acetylcholine is released from postganglionic sympathetic neurons.
In neuroscience and related fields, the term cholinergic is used in these related contexts:
- A substance (or ligand) is cholinergic if it is capable of producing, altering, or releasing acetylcholine ("indirect-acting") or mimicking its behaviour at one or more of the body's acetylcholine receptor types ("direct-acting"). Such mimics are called parasympathomimetic drugs or cholinomimetic drugs.
- A receptor is cholinergic if it uses acetylcholine as its neurotransmitter.
- A synapse is cholinergic if it uses acetylcholine as its neurotransmitter.
Usage examples of "cholinergic".
The other group of nerve cells in this same region is called a cholinergic system because it’s chemical signature— its neurotransmitter—is acetylcholine.
The cholinergic system is apparently held in restraint by the aminergic system.
Thus, when the aminergic system is functioning at a high level, the cholinergic system is functioning at a reciprocally relatively low level.
As we go to sleep, the aminergic system decreases in its activity, and the cholinergic system becomes relatively more active.
The cholinergic system becomes progressively more active throughout the period of deep sleep without dreams.
Ultimately these two neuron populations become radically differentiated: the adrenergic system shuts off completely, and the cholinergic system reaches its highest level of activity just when you enter the dream state.
The dreaming brain is very highly cholinergic, the waking brain is very highly aminergic, while in each of these states the forebrain is highly electrically activated.
Secondly, the eye motor nuclei which control eye movements lie upstream in the brain stem, forward of aminergic and cholinergic state control systems in the pontine brain stem.
As a result, those nerve fibers which secrete acetylcholine are referred to as cholinergic nerves and those which secrete norepinephrine are adrenergic nerves.
Alzheimer's seems to be the result of the death of the cholinergic nerve cells deep in the brain below the cortex, way down in the medial septal nucleus, the diagonal band of Broca and particularly in the nucleus basal is of Meynert.
Isn't one of the main theories about TD that it's caused by cholinergic blockage?