Pathway-Specific Striatal Substrates for Habitual Behavior.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
The dorsolateral striatum (DLS) is implicated in habit formation. However, the DLS circuit mechanisms underlying habit remain unclear. A key role for DLS is to transform sensorimotor cortical input into firing of output neurons that project to the mutually antagonistic direct and indirect basal ganglia pathways. Here we examine whether habit alters this input-output function. By imaging cortically evoked firing in large populations of pathway-defined striatal projection neurons (SPNs), we identify features that strongly correlate with habitual behavior on a subject-by-subject basis. Habitual behavior correlated with strengthened DLS output to both pathways as well as a tendency for action-promoting direct pathway SPNs to fire before indirect pathway SPNs. In contrast, habit suppression correlated solely with a weakened direct pathway output. Surprisingly, all effects were broadly distributed in space. Together, these findings indicate that the striatum imposes broad, pathway-specific modulations of incoming activity to render learned motor behaviors habitual.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- O'Hare, JK; Ade, KK; Sukharnikova, T; Van Hooser, SD; Palmeri, ML; Yin, HH; Calakos, N
Published Date
- February 3, 2016
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 89 / 3
Start / End Page
- 472 - 479
PubMed ID
- 26804995
Pubmed Central ID
- PMC4887103
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1097-4199
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.12.032
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- United States