This assumption is supported by observations showing a modifying impact of MLS1547 glucose on neural and behavioral effects of cholinergic drugs. Of note, all of the previously proposed mechanisms point at the hippocampal formation as a possible target and mediator. The significant effect of maintaining normoglycemia on a verbal learning paradigm further suggests that it might have been the left hippocampal region that benefitted in particular from the experimental protocol, as language is typically associated with the left hemisphere, and verbal memory is associated with the left hippocampus. However, this interpretation has to be considered speculatory until further studies would allow us to also assess the integrity of selected structures in the central nervous system, for example by use of neuroimaging assessments. Taken together, the results of this study provide preliminary evidence of neuroprotective effects of GIN during open heart surgery which appear to be specific to learning and memory and, thus, likely affect the hippocampus. There are a number of limitations that need to be mentioned. First, the number of subjects was rather small for such a trial; unfortunately due to budget and time availability constraints of the involved personnel we were unable to test a larger number of patients. An amount of 8% of variability in the memory data explained by the intraoperative procedure indicates a small to medium effect size, suggesting that other factors contributed significantly to the variability of individual memory performance as well. Furthermore, the small number of tested subjects could lead to an overestimation of the treatment effect, with larger samples typically producing smaller effect sizes, and group differences. Nevertheless, the statistical analysis indicated that maintenance of normoglycemia was a significant factor in this particular type of memory performance, thus we consider these results as promising yet preliminary evidence for the effect of maintaining normoglycemia. Second, the groups were not very homogeneous; the type of cardiac surgery was not balanced between the two groups, and the age of the participants ranged from young to old adulthood, making the distribution of this variable rather heterogeneous within the groups. Due to the nature of the experimental setup, this was Practolol unavoidable.