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Updated: Sep 12, 2025
07:52
In Vivo Wireless Optogenetic Control of Skilled Motor Behavior
Published on: November 22, 2021
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Striatal and cerebellar interactions during reward-based motor performance.
Joonhee Leo Lee1,2, Agostina Casamento-Moran1,2, Amy J Bastian2,3
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205.
Summary
The basal ganglia and cerebellum form a network that helps distinguish successful from unsuccessful actions. This brain network is modulated by motivation and preferences, supporting goal-directed motor behavior.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Motor Control
Background:
- Goal-directed motor performance requires differentiating outcomes.
- The basal ganglia (BG) and cerebellum (CBL) are key for outcome processing.
- Functional interactions between BG and CBL in this context are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the functional interactions between the basal ganglia and cerebellum during goal-directed motor tasks.
- To explore how these interactions are modulated by performance outcomes and motivation.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan participants performing a skilled motor task.
- Participants performed a task with outcomes contingent on motor performance and probabilistic events.
- Dynamic causal modeling (DCM) analyzed functional connectivity between brain regions.
Main Results:
- Successful motor outcomes increased ventral striatum (VS) activity, while unsuccessful outcomes engaged the cerebellum (CBL).
- BG and CBL showed no differential activity for probabilistic outcomes unrelated to motor performance.
- DCM revealed inhibitory VS-to-CBL connectivity after success and CBL-to-VS connectivity after failure, modulated by task preference.
Conclusions:
- A performance-mediated functional network exists between the VS and CBL.
- This network is modulated by motivation and subjective preferences.
- The findings support the role of this network in goal-directed behavior and action control.
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