Chapter 6 Basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits: Parallel substrates for motor, oculomotor, “prefrontal” and “limbic” functions

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Basal ganglia contribute to a wide variety of behavioral functions, including skeletomotor, oculomotor, cognitive, and limbic processes. This chapter focuses on the basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits. Basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits are organized in a parallel manner and remain largely segregated from one another, both structurally and functionally. The central theme of the segregated circuits hypothesis is that structural convergence and functional integration occurs within each of the identified circuits. In primates, the basal ganglia motor pathways are focused principally on the putamen and its connections. This part of the neostriatum receives topographic projections from primary motor cortex (MC). The focus of the terminals originating in the putamen appears to lie somewhat dorsal to that of the terminals arising from the body of the caudate. The basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits might be seen as having a unified role in modulating the operations of the entire frontal lobe, and thereby influencing—by common mechanisms, such as diverse frontal lobe processes—the maintenance and switching of behavioral sets and the planning and execution of limb and eye movements.

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