Tonically discharging neurons of monkey striatum respond to preparatory and rewarding stimuli.
The behavioral relationships of 396 striatum neurons with regular, tonically elevated discharge rates were studied. While monkeys performed a delayed gonogo task, neurons predominantly located in medial putamen responded with phasic depressions (n = 30) or activations (n = 5) to task-specific stimuli. Particularly effective was an instruction light preparing for movement or no-movement reactions, and an auditory signal associated with reward delivery. Stimuli triggering arm or mouth movements were less effective. The data demonstrate that these usually poorly modulated neurons display context-dependent phasic activity in specific behavioral situations.
Apicella
P
P
Institut de Physiologie, Université de Fribourg, Switzerland.
Scarnati
E
E
Schultz
W
W
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D008252:Macaca fascicularis; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011699:Putamen / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D012201:Reward