Research on mammals and turtles has suggested that acetylcholine is involved in attention in these groups. Two experiments investigated the ability of painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) to ignore irrelevant stimuli when the basal forebrain acetylcholine system was compromised. In experiment 1, turtles given lesions of the basal magnocellular cholinergic nucleus (NBM) or sham lesions were tested on a go/no go discrimination between horizontal and vertical stripes with or without irrelevant inserts in the box. The irrelevant inserts were blue and white checked walls and green carpet on the floor. The group with lesions of the NBM and no irrelevant inserts had no difficulty learning the task, but the lesioned group with irrelevant inserts was impaired on the discrimination. The sham-lesioned group was not impaired by the presence of irrelevant inserts. In experiment 2, turtles were given either the acetylcholine muscarinic receptor blocker scopolamine or saline and tested on the same task. The turtles given scopolamine had no difficulty learning the task in the absence of irrelevant inserts, but they were severely impaired when irrelevant inserts were present. The irrelevant inserts did not affect the learning of control turtles given saline. These findings provide evidence that acetylcholine enhances turtles' ability to orient to relevant stimuli and suggest that its role in learning and memory may be to allow animals to orient to the stimuli relevant to a task and to ignore irrelevant stimuli.

中文翻译：

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乙酰胆碱在乌龟注意中的作用（Chrysemys picta）。

对哺乳动物和海龟的研究表明，乙酰胆碱与这些人群有关。两项实验研究了在基础前脑乙酰胆碱系统受损时，彩绘乌龟（Chrysemys picta）忽略无关刺激的能力。在实验1中，对有基底巨细胞胆碱能核（NBM）损伤或假损伤的乌龟进行了水平/垂直条纹的有无区分测试，盒内有无相关插入物。不相关的插入物是蓝色和白色的格子墙以及地板上的绿色地毯。有NBM损伤且无相关插入物的组在学习任务上没有困难，但具有无相关插入物的病变组的辨别力受损。假手术组不受不相关插入物的影响。在实验2中，给乌龟服用乙酰胆碱毒蕈碱受体阻滞剂东pol碱或盐水，并在相同的任务上进行测试。在没有无关插入物的情况下，给予东pol碱的海龟学习该任务没有困难，但是当存在无关插入物时，它们会严重受损。不相关的插入物不影响给予盐水的对照乌龟的学习。这些发现提供了乙酰胆碱增强海龟对相关刺激定向的能力的证据，并表明其在学习和记忆中的作用可能是使动物对与任务相关的刺激定向并忽略无关的刺激。在没有无关插入物的情况下，给予东pol碱的海龟学习该任务没有困难，但是当存在无关插入物时，它们会严重受损。不相关的插入物不影响给予盐水的对照乌龟的学习。这些发现提供了乙酰胆碱增强海龟对相关刺激定向的能力的证据，并表明其在学习和记忆中的作用可能是使动物对与某任务相关的刺激定向并忽略无关的刺激。在没有无关插入物的情况下，给予东pol碱的海龟学习该任务没有困难，但是当存在无关插入物时，它们会严重受损。不相关的插入物不影响给予盐水的对照乌龟的学习。这些发现提供了乙酰胆碱增强海龟对相关刺激定向的能力的证据，并表明其在学习和记忆中的作用可能是使动物对与某任务相关的刺激定向并忽略无关的刺激。