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Subtype-selective Electroporation of Cortical Interneurons
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Inversely Active Striatal Projection Neurons and Interneurons Selectively Delimit Useful Behavioral Sequences
Nuné Martiros1, Alexandra A Burgess1, Ann M Graybiel1
1McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Current Biology : CB
|February 13, 2018
Summary
Striatal projection neurons (SPNs) mark rewarded behavioral sequences by firing at their beginning and end, independent of specific movements. This neural signal aids in understanding complex behaviors and their acquisition.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Science
- Systems Neuroscience
Background:
- Understanding neural mechanisms of behavioral routines is crucial for explaining complex behaviors in both healthy and diseased states.
- The striatum plays a key role in habit formation and motor control, but its precise role in representing complex behavioral sequences remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how neural activity in the striatum represents learned sequences of behavior.
- To determine if striatal neurons encode entire sequences or individual movements within a sequence.
Main Methods:
- Recorded neural spike activity in the striatum and primary motor cortex of rats.
- Trained rats to learn specific rewarded lever-press sequences.
- Compared neural responses during reinforced sequences versus unreinforced sequences using the same movements.
Main Results:
- Striatal projection neurons (SPNs) showed increased activity at the initiation and termination of learned, rewarded sequences.
- Motor cortical neurons primarily responded to individual movements, irrespective of sequence.
- SPNs did not exhibit this bracketing activity for unreinforced sequences, indicating sequence-specific representation.
- Fast-spiking interneurons (FSIs) in the striatum fired inversely to SPNs, active between sequence initiation and termination.
Conclusions:
- The striatum represents acquired behavioral sequences at an abstract level, beyond individual movements.
- SPN and FSI networks in the striatum may underlie the formation of chunked behavioral units.
- This neural representation is specific to previously rewarded sequences.
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