PMID-16271465 The basal ganglia: learning new tricks and loving it
- BG analogous to the anterior forebrain pathway (AFP), which is necessary for song learning in young birds. Requires lots of practice and feedback. Studies suggest e.g. that neural activity in the AFP is correlated with song variability, and that the AFP can adjust ongoing activity in effector motor pathways.
- LMAN = presumed homolog of cortex that receives basal ganglia outflow. Blockade of outflow from LMAN to RA creates stereotyped singing.
- To see accurately what is happening, it's necessary to record simultaneously, or in close temporal contiguity, striatal and cortical neurons during learning.
- Pasupathy and biller showed that changes occur in the striatum than cortex during learning.
- She cites lots of papers -- there has been a good bit of work on this, and the theories are coming together. I should be careful not to dismiss or negatively weight things.
- Person and Perkel [48] reports that in songbirds, the analogous GPi to thalamus pathway induces IPSPs as well as rebound spikes with highly selective timing.
- Reference Levenesque and Parent PMID-16087877 who find elaborate column-like arrays of striatonigral terminations in the SNr, not in the dopamine-containing SNpc.
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