Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: The striatum is the initial input nuclei of the basal ganglia, and it serves as an integral processing center for action selection and sensorimotor learning.Glutamatergic projections from the cortex and thalamus converge with dense dopaminergic axons from the midbrain to provide the primary inputs to the striatum.Striatal output is then relayed to downstream basal ganglia nuclei by GABAergic medium -sized spiny neurons, which comprise at least 95% of the population of neurons in the striatum.The remaining population of local circuit neurons is dedicated to regulating the activity of spiny projection neurons, and although spiny neurons form a weak lateral inhibitory network among themselves via local axon collaterals, feedforward modulation exerts more powerful control over spiny neuron excitability.Of the striatal interneurons, only one class is not GABAergic.These neurons are cholinergic and correspond to the tonically active neurons (TANs) recorded in vivo, which respond to specific environmental stimuli with a transient depression, or pause, of tonic firing.Striatal cholinergic interneurons account for less than 2 % of the striatal
Author: Sullivan, Matthew Alexander
Institution: The University of Texas at Austin
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6986832203