Interacting corticobasal ganglia-thalamocortical loops shape behavioral control through cognitive maps and shortcuts

Control of behavior is often explained in terms of a dichotomy, with distinct neural circuits underlying goal-directed and habitual control, yet accumulating evidence suggests these processes are deeply intertwined. We propose a novel anatomically informed cognitive framework, motivated by interacting corticobasal ganglia-thalamocortical loops as observed in different mammals. The framework shifts the perspective from a strict dichotomy toward a continuous, integrated network where behavior emerges dynamically from interacting circuits. Decisions within each loop contribute contextual information, which is integrated with goal-related signals in the basal ganglia input, building a network of dependencies. Loop-bypassing shortcuts facilitate habit formation. Striatal integration hubs may function analogously to attention mechanisms in Transformer neural networks, a parallel we explore to clarify how a variety of behaviors can emerge from an integrated network.