Dynamic reorganization of striatal circuits during the acquisition and consolidation of a skill.

ABSTRACT: The learning of new skills is characterized by an initial phase of rapid improvement in performance and a phase of more gradual improvements as skills are automatized and performance asymptotes. Using in vivo striatal recordings, we observed region-specific changes in neural activity during the different phases of skill learning, with the associative or dorsomedial striatum being preferentially engaged early in training and the sensorimotor or dorsolateral striatum being engaged later in training. Ex vivo recordings from medium spiny striatal neurons in brain slices of trained mice revealed that the changes observed in vivo corresponded to regional- and training-specific changes in excitatory synaptic transmission in the striatum. Furthermore, the potentiation of glutamatergic transmission

SUBMITTER: Yin HH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2774785 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature