title: The striatum: where skills and habits meet.
abstract: After more than a century of work concentrating on the motor functions of the basal ganglia, new ideas have emerged, suggesting that the basal ganglia also have major functions in relation to learning habits and acquiring motor skills. We review the evidence supporting the role of the striatum in optimizing behavior by refining action selection and in shaping habits and skills as a modulator of motor repertoires. These findings challenge the notion that striatal learning processes are limited to the motor domain. The learning mechanisms supported by striatal circuitry generalize to other domains, including cognitive skills and emotion-related patterns of action.
authors.affiliation: McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 20139 Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 20139.
authors.forename: Ann M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Graybiel
authors.affiliation: Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9660 Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9660.
authors.forename: Scott T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Grafton
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D009048:Motor Skills