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Related Concept Videos

Direct Motor Pathways01:11

Direct Motor Pathways

2.5K
The direct motor pathways, also known as the pyramidal tracts, are a group of neural pathways that originate in the brain and descend through the spinal cord. They control the voluntary movement of the body. There are two major direct motor pathways: the corticospinal and the corticobulbar tracts.
The corticospinal tract is responsible for the voluntary movement of the limbs and trunk. It originates in the cerebral cortex of the brain and descends through the cerebrum's internal capsule and...
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Indirect Motor Pathways01:22

Indirect Motor Pathways

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The indirect motor or extrapyramidal pathways originate in the brainstem, the lower portion of the brain that connects it to the spinal cord. They consist of several distinct tracts, each with specialized functions. The four main tracts of the indirect motor pathways are the vestibulospinal tract, the reticulospinal tract, the tectospinal tract, and the rubrospinal tract.
The vestibulospinal tract originates in the vestibular nuclei of the brainstem. The vestibular system detects changes in...
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Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex01:14

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The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex....
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Diencephalon: Thalamus and Information Relay01:27

Diencephalon: Thalamus and Information Relay

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The thalamus, often called “the gateway to the cerebral cortex,” is vital in processing and directing sensory and motor signals throughout the brain. Almost all inputs destined for the cerebral cortex, except for olfactory signals, are relayed through the thalamus. The thalamus is  a sophisticated relay station, channeling information from various brain regions to the cerebral cortex, as well as a filter, prioritizing certain signals over others based on current physiological...
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Major Somatic Sensory Pathways01:28

Major Somatic Sensory Pathways

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Sensory impulses related to touch, pressure, vibration, and proprioception from various body parts, such as the limbs, trunk, neck, and posterior head, travel to the cerebral cortex through the posterior column-medial lemniscus pathway. The pathway’s name derives from the two white-matter tracts that convey the impulses: the spinal cord's posterior column and the brainstem's medial lemniscus. First-order sensory neurons extend their axons into the spinal cord, forming the...
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Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex01:24

Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

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The somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobes is crucial for interpreting sensory data such as touch, temperature, and proprioception. The somatosensory cortex, situated in the parietal lobes, plays a vital role in interpreting sensory information like touch, temperature, and proprioception—awareness of body position. This specialized brain region features an organized structure wherein neurons at the top primarily process sensations originating from the lower body. In contrast, those at...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 12, 2025

Intracortical Inhibition Within the Primary Motor Cortex Can Be Modulated by Changing the Focus of Attention
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Intracortical Inhibition Within the Primary Motor Cortex Can Be Modulated by Changing the Focus of Attention

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Striatal pathways oppositely shift cortical activity along the decision axis.

Jounhong Ryan Cho1, Scott S Bolkan1, Lindsey S Brown1

  • 1Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.

Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|August 6, 2025
PubMed
Summary

The basal ganglia

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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Sep 12, 2025

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Systems Neuroscience

Background:

  • The basal ganglia and cortex form parallel loops for motor, limbic, and cognitive functions.
  • The classic model suggests direct and indirect basal ganglia pathways have opposing effects on cortical activity.
  • Opponent control by these pathways in cognitive functions remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether the direct and indirect basal ganglia pathways exert opponent control over cognitive functions.
  • To examine the effects of manipulating these pathways on anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity during a decision-making task.

Main Methods:

  • Electrophysiological recordings in the ACC and dorsomedial striatum (DMS) of mice.
  • Inhibition of direct or indirect pathway neurons in the DMS during an accumulation-of-evidence task.
  • Analysis of neural activity in relation to decision variables and evidence accumulation.

Main Results:

  • Basal ganglia pathway manipulations did not alter overall ACC activity.
  • Opponent control was observed in a subpopulation of ACC neurons encoding accumulated sensory evidence.
  • Pathway effects were specific to the coding of the decision variable, modulated by evidence tuning.

Conclusions:

  • Basal ganglia pathways exhibit functional specificity, with opponent control over cortical coding of decision variables, not overall activity.
  • This specificity may extend to other basal ganglia loops, supporting adaptive behavior by selecting and shifting cortical representations.
  • Findings challenge the classic model and reveal nuanced roles for basal ganglia pathways in cognitive processing.