The striatum and self-paced movements.
Monkeys (Macacca fascicularis) were tested for their ability to perform learned, self-initiated arm movements for reward, both before and after receiving bilateral putamen lesions. The rate at which they made the movements was significantly reduced postoperatively, but their performance on a visually cued control task was normal. It is argued that the impairment was not a consequence of poor motor control or motivation, but that it reflected a reduced capacity to recall learned movements in the absence of external cues. The results complement similar findings for monkeys with supplementary motor cortex (SMA) lesions; the putamen is interconnected with the SMA in a cortico-striatal-thalamocortical loop.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. philip.nixon@psy.ox.ac.uk
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D000818:Animals; D001132:Arm; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004525:Efferent Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology / Q000601:surgery; D008252:Macaca fascicularis; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology; D011699:Putamen / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology* / Q000601:surgery; D013996:Time and Motion Studies; D014743:Videotape Recording; D014836:Volition / Q000502:physiology*