The acetylcholine-producing cell groups of formatio reticularis - in its extended definition - are limited to the mesencephalon/midbrain and basal forebrain and include the following members:
Cell group Ch1 of the nucleus septalis medialis; "irrigates" the hippocampus complex.
The cell groups Ch2 and Ch3 in Broca's diagonal band.
Cell group Ch4 of the nucleus basalis Meynert of the substantia innominata.
Cell group Ch5 in the nucleus tegmentalis pedunculopontinus.
Strewn acetylcholine-producing neuronCell group Ch6 in nucleus tegmentalis dorso(postero)lateralis
Cell group Ch7 of the medial habenula nucleus: Cell group Ch8 of the parabigeminal nucleus.
Mesulam, M-M. (2000) Structure and Function of Cholinergic Pathways in the Cerebral Cortex, Limbic System, Basal Ganglia, and Thalamus of the Human Brain, in Back to Psychopharmacology - The Fourth Generation of Progress. ACNP.)
In addition to the above, the term 'acetylcholine-producing cell groups of CNS' shall include:
1/ Alpha and gamma motor neurons
2/ Preganglionic autonomic neurons
3/ The small periovarian nuclei around the oliva superior, whose axons form Rasmussen's nerve/nerve fibre bundle
4/ Small cell groups, called striosomes, scattered in the caudate nucleus, in the shell nucleus/putamen and in the nucleus accumbens.
5/ Cell groups of Calleja islets associated with the nucleus accumbens.