In resent years, it is said that the basal ganglia has a feedback control function for motion generation. Some authors suggested that the feedback control function of the basal ganglia has something to do with language dysfunction, especially dysfunction of utterance motion like Gilles de la Tourette syndrome or stuttering. But we don’t know the concrete mechanism of the relation. We have to kn...

The prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia are known to be crucial for learning arbitrary sensorimotor associations (e.g. knowing to stop at red traffic lights). However, little is known about the timing of learning-related activity in these brain systems. Conventional wisdom suggests that the prefrontal cortex should drive learning-related changes in the basal ganglia. However, it is possible tha...

The basal ganglia are known to control behavior using reward information; however, recent experiments have revealed that the basal ganglia contribute to the processing of salient non-rewarding events as well. Here, we suggest that the temporal dynamics of the response of dopaminergic neurons (DANs) enable the basal ganglia to have a dual role. The fast DAN response to salient events is mediated...

A large number of computational models of information processing in the basal ganglia have been developed in recent years. Prominent in these are actor-critic models of basal ganglia functioning, which build on the strong resemblance between dopamine neuron activity and the temporal difference prediction error signal in the critic, and between dopamine-dependent long-term synaptic plasticity in...

The cortico-basal ganglia pathway is involved in normal motor control and implicated in multiple movement disorders. Brief repetitive muscle contractions known as motor tics are a common symptom in several basal ganglia related motor disorders. We used focal micro-injections of the GABA-A antagonist bicuculline to the sensorimotor putamen of behaving primates to induce stereotyped tics similar ...

The basal ganglia are a group of subcortical nuclei involved in a variety of processes including motor, cognitive and mnemonic functions. One of their major roles is to integrate sensorimotor, associative and limbic information in the production of context-dependent behaviours. These roles are exemplified by the clinical manifestations of neurological disorders of the basal ganglia. Recent adva...

SEE POSTUMA DOI101093/AWW131 FOR A SCIENTIFIC COMMENTARY ON THIS ARTICLE: Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging dysfunction within the basal ganglia network is a feature of early Parkinson's disease and may be a diagnostic biomarker of basal ganglia dysfunction. Currently, it is unclear whether these changes are present in so-called idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behaviour di...