How cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic subnetworks can shift decision policies to increase reward rate.

ABSTRACT: All mammals exhibit flexible decision policies that depend, at least in part, on the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic (CBGT) pathways. Yet understanding how the complex connectivity, dynamics, and plasticity of CBGT circuits translate into experience-dependent shifts of decision policies represents a longstanding challenge in neuroscience. Here we present the results of a computational approach to address this problem. Specifically, we simulated decisions during the early learning process driven by CBGT circuits under baseline, unrewarded conditions using a spiking neural network, and fit an evidence accumulation model to the resulting behavior. Using canonical correlation analysis, we then replicated the identification of three control ensembles (responsiveness, pliancy and choice) within C

SUBMITTER: Bahuguna J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12668618 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature