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Basal Ganglia

Pathways for action

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 17, page 535 (2016)Cite this article

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The authors set out to examine how the activities of the direct and indirect pathways affect action initiation. To do so, they expressed archaerhodopsin or channelrhodopsin 2 — to allow optogenetic silencing or activation of neurons, respectively — in dorsolateral striatum neurons in one or the other or both of these pathways in mice. These animals were then trained to press a lever in bouts to obtain a reward.

Optogenetic inhibition of both pathways simultaneously led to an increase in the latency of the trained animals to press the lever for the first time in a bout, indicating that striatal activity is required for the proper initiation of this action. Interestingly, selective inhibition of either pathway also increased the latency to the first lever press by the same magnitude, suggesting that activity in both pathways is required for action initiation.

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References

  1. Tecuapetla, F. et al. Complementary contributions of striatal projection pathways to action initiation and execution. Cell 166, 703–715 (2016)

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  1. Darran Yates
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Yates, D. Pathways for action. Nat Rev Neurosci 17, 535 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.118

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