The direct and indirect pathways of the basal ganglia antagonistically influence cortical activity and perceptual decisions.

ABSTRACT: The striatum, the main input nucleus of the basal ganglia, receives topographically organized input from the cortex and gives rise to the direct and indirect output pathways, which have antagonistic effects on basal ganglia output directed to the cortex. We optogenetically stimulated the direct and indirect pathways in a visual and a working memory task in mice that responded by licking. Unilateral direct pathway stimulation increased the probability of lick responses toward the contralateral, non-stimulated side and increased cortical activity globally. In contrast, indirect pathway stimulation increased the probability of responses toward the stimulated side and decreased activity in the stimulated hemisphere. Moreover, direct pathway stimulation enhanced the neural representation of a c

SUBMITTER: van Beest EH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11402218 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature