 Another feature is an increase in the expression of GAL and GAL receptors, in which increases of up to 200% have been observed in postmortem brains of Alzheimer's patients.The cause and role of this increase is poorly understood.It has been suggested that the hyper-innervation acts to promote the death of these neurons and that the inhibitory effect of galanin on cholinergic neurons worsened the degeneration of cognitive function in patients by decreasing the amount of acetylcholine available to these neurons.