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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 5, 2025

Force and Position Control in Humans - The Role of Augmented Feedback

Force and Position Control in Humans - The Role of Augmented Feedback

Published on: June 19, 2016

Action suppression reveals opponent parallel control via striatal circuits.

Bruno F Cruz¹, Gonçalo Guiomar¹, Sofia Soares^1,2

¹Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, PT, Portugal.

|July 6, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The basal ganglia

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Last Updated: Sep 5, 2025

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Published on: September 11, 2017

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Computational Neuroscience
Motor Control

Background:

The basal ganglia's direct and indirect pathways are traditionally viewed as promoting and suppressing actions, respectively.
Co-activation of striatal direct and indirect medium spiny neurons (dMSNs and iMSNs) challenges this classical model.
Understanding basal ganglia function is crucial for explaining action initiation and suppression.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the distinct roles of direct and indirect pathways in action promotion and suppression.
To explore the functional opponency between dMSNs and iMSNs during action suppression.
To elucidate how region-specific basal ganglia circuits contribute to behavioral control.

Main Methods:

Studied basal ganglia circuits in mice performing an interval categorization task.
Utilized fiber photometry and photo-identified electrophysiological recordings.
Employed optogenetic inhibition and computational reinforcement learning modeling.

Main Results:

Observed functional opponency between dMSNs and iMSNs during action suppression in the dorsolateral striatum (DLS).
Found that DLS circuits primarily suppress, rather than promote, action.
Demonstrated that iMSNs suppress contralateral action, while dMSNs in the dorsomedial striatum promote it.

Conclusions:

Opponent interactions between basal ganglia circuits and regions enable behavioral control.
The sensorimotor indirect pathway plays a key role in proactively suppressing tempting actions.
Striatal circuits exhibit region-specific functions in motor control.