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Updated: Jun 6, 2025

Stereotactically-guided Ablation of the Rat Auditory Cortex, and Localization of the Lesion in the Brain
Published on: October 11, 2017
The External Globus Pallidus as the Hub of the Auditory Cortico-Basal Ganglia Loop
Ryohei Tomioka1,2, Naoki Shigematsu3, Toshio Miyashita4,5
1Department of Sensory and Cognitive Physiology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan tomioka@kumamoto-u.ac.jp.
Abstract:
The cortico-basal ganglia loop has traditionally been conceptualized as consisting of three distinct information networks: motor, limbic, and associative. However, this three-loop concept is insufficient to comprehensively explain the diverse functions of the cortico-basal ganglia system, as emerging evidence suggests its involvement in sensory processing, including the auditory systems. In the present study, we demonstrate the auditory cortico-basal ganglia loop by using transgenic mice and viral-assisted labelings. The caudal part of the external globus pallidus (GPe) emerged as a major output nucleus of the auditory cortico-basal ganglia loop with the cortico-striato-pallidal projections as its input pathway and pallido-cortical and pallido-thalamo-cortical projections as its output pathway. GABAergic neurons in the caudal GPe dominantly innervated the nonlemniscal auditory pathway. They also projected to various regions, including the substantia nigra pars lateralis, cuneiform nucleus, and periaqueductal gray. Considering the functions associated with these GPe-projecting regions, auditory cortico-basal ganglia circuits may play a pivotal role in eliciting defensive behaviors against acoustic stimuli.
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