# Cholinergic blockade reveals a role for human hippocampal theta in memory encoding but not retrieval

Source: [eLife: latest articles](https://elifesciences.org/articles/108972) · 2026-11-11 · Life
Page: https://themorning.science/story/cholinergic-blockade-reveals-a-role-for-human-hippocampal-theta-in-memory-encodi-8a36270ac0397313
Kind: research · Impact: medium

## In brief

- Researchers gave human participants scopolamine, a muscarinic cholinergic antagonist, to study how cholinergic signalling relates to memory.
- The study reports a role for human hippocampal theta activity in memory encoding but not in retrieval.

## Why it matters

Cholinergic dysfunction is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease and other memory disorders, but the neurophysiological mechanisms linking it to memory have been poorly understood. This work points to hippocampal theta activity as one mechanism involved in encoding.

## Timeline

- 2026-11-11: Study listed as a latest eLife article

## Coverage

- [Cholinergic blockade reveals a role for human hippocampal theta in memory encoding but not retrieval](https://elifesciences.org/articles/108972) — eLife: latest articles, 2026-11-11

Tags: hippocampus, theta oscillations, cholinergic signaling, memory encoding, scopolamine, alzheimer's disease

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Brief generated by AI (claude-haiku-5-5) from the reporting listed under Coverage. Headlines belong to their publishers. The Morning Science – https://themorning.science