Neuronal cell migration for the developmental formation of the mammalian striatum

The mammalian striatum is the largest receptive component of the basal ganglia circuit. It is involved in the control of various aspects of motor, cognitive, and emotional functions. In the telencephalon, the striatum has a unique histological property totally different from the cortical area and its ontogenesis remains largely unknown. In this review, we introduce recent advances in the understanding of neuronal cell migration, one of the most critical processes in the early phase of histogenesis that occurs in the embryonic striatum. It appears that there are three major modes of neuronal cell migration in the developmental formation of the striatum. They are (radial) outward, tangential, and inward migration, supplying the striatum with projection neurons, interneurons, and early-generated transient neurons that originate in the preplate, respectively. We challenge the classical concept that the striatum is solely derived from the restricted germinal area located in the basal telencephalon by providing evidence that striatal development requires the intermixture of different types of neurons originating from distinct regions of the telencephalon.