A cortical motor nucleus drives the basal ganglia-recipient thalamus in singing birds
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Fee_A cortical motor.pdf
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Author(s)
Goldberg, Jesse H.
Fee, Michale S.
Date Issued
February 2012
Journal
Nature Neuroscience
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Goldberg, Jesse H, and Michale S Fee. “A Cortical Motor Nucleus Drives the Basal Ganglia-Recipient Thalamus in Singing Birds.” Nat Neurosci 15, no. 4 (February 12, 2012): 620–627.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
The pallido-recipient thalamus transmits information from the basal ganglia to the cortex and is critical for motor initiation and learning. Thalamic activity is strongly inhibited by pallidal inputs from the basal ganglia, but the role of nonpallidal inputs, such as excitatory inputs from cortex, remains unclear. We simultaneously recorded from presynaptic pallidal axon terminals and postsynaptic thalamocortical neurons in a basal ganglia–recipient thalamic nucleus that is necessary for vocal variability and learning in zebra finches. We found that song-locked rate modulations in the thalamus could not be explained by pallidal inputs alone and persisted following pallidal lesion. Instead, thalamic activity was likely driven by inputs from a motor cortical nucleus that is also necessary for singing. These findings suggest a role for cortical inputs to the pallido-recipient thalamus in driving premotor signals that are important for exploratory behavior and learning.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3047
