Patients have reduced activity in acetylcholine nerve cell network
Written by Steve Bryson, PhD | Aug. 20, 2026
- Parkinson’s patients experiencing visual hallucinations show reduced activity in the brain’s acetylcholine-using nerve cell network.
- Impaired early cholinergic signaling in specific brain regions can predict which patients will later develop visual hallucinations.
- Measuring cholinergic activity may serve as a biomarker for risk and a target for future therapeutic interventions.
People with Parkinson’s disease who experience visual hallucinations have reduced activity in the brain’s cholinergic system, a network of nerve cells that use the chemical messenger acetylcholine, a brain imaging study found.
Impaired cholinergic signaling in certain brain regions early on predicted who would later develop visual hallucinations.
The researchers said measuring cholinergic activity in certain brain regions could serve as a biomarker to identify patients at a higher risk of developing hallucinations, or as a target for future treatments aimed at reducing or preventing them.
The study, “Cholinergic deficits and hallucinations in Parkinson disease,” was published in npj Parkinson’s Disease.
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