Abstract
The striatum is an input channel of the basal ganglia and is well known to be involved in reward-based decision making and learning. At the macroscopic level, the striatum has been postulated to contain parallel functional modules, each of which includes neurons that perform similar computations to support selection of appropriate actions for different task contexts. At the single-neuron level, however, recent studies in monkeys and rodents have revealed heterogeneity in neuronal activity even within restricted modules of the striatum. Looking for generality in the complex striatal activity patterns, here we briefly survey several types of striatal activity, focusing on their usefulness for mediating behaviors. In particular, we focus on two types of behavioral tasks: reward-based tasks that use salient sensory cues and manipulate outcomes associated with the cues; and perceptual decision tasks that manipulate the quality of noisy sensory cues and associate all correct decisions with the same outcome. Guided by previous insights on the modular organization and general selection-related functions of the basal ganglia, we relate striatal activity patterns on these tasks to two types of computations: implementation of selection and evaluation. We suggest that a parsing with the selection/evaluation categories encourages a focus on the functional commonalities revealed by studies with different animal models and behavioral tasks, instead of a focus on aspects of striatal activity that may be specific to a particular task setting. We then highlight several questions in the selection-evaluation framework for future explorations.
Highlights
The striatum, an input channel of the basal ganglia, receives massive projections from the cortex and shows funnel-like connections to other subcortical regions
In an equal-reward task context, these neurons may contribute to selection of the correct saccade target, by encoding target location information; in the asymmetric-reward task context (‘‘1DR’’ in Figure 2A), the loss of target-location selectivity diminishes their usefulness for the selection process, while the emergence of reward expectation-selectivity increases their usefulness in monitoring a predicted reward, which is a critical component for evaluation of the selection process
We have focused this brief review on putative projection neurons within a macroscopic loop on two types of tasks, with explicit reward or visual input manipulations, respectively
Summary
Matthew Roesch, University of Maryland, College Park, United States Byounghoon Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States. The striatum has been postulated to contain parallel functional modules, each of which includes neurons that perform similar computations to support selection of appropriate actions for different task contexts. Guided by previous insights on the modular organization and general selection-related functions of the basal ganglia, we relate striatal activity patterns on these tasks to two types of computations: implementation of selection and evaluation. We suggest that a parsing with the selection/evaluation categories encourages a focus on the functional commonalities revealed by studies with different animal models and behavioral tasks, instead of a focus on aspects of striatal activity that may be specific to a particular task setting.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
