Grant Number: 5R01NS025529-19
Project Title: EXTRAPYRAMIDAL SYSTEMS
PI Information: PROFESSOR ANN M. GRAYBIEL, graybiel@mit.edu 

Abstract:
Many researchers are studying the decision and executive functions of cortical areas and cortical networks and the plasticity of these networks. A major question about such cortical processing is how it is influenced by major subcortical systems interconnected with these cortical areas. For the basal ganglia, views have ranged from the basal ganglia serving mainly an automating function to the basal ganglia serving an instructive function, to the basal ganglia being involved both in selection and chunking functions leading to efficient release of behaviors in particular contexts. To approach this issue experimentally, we propose to record simultaneously the activity of neurons in cortex and striatum. We propose to compare and contrast anatomically-defined striosome-based and matrix-based corticostriatal circuits. To do this we will record in cortical areas of the anterior cingulate gyrus and prefrontal cortex, and at the same time record from projection neurons and interneurons in the anatomically defined corresponding corticorecipient zones of the striatum. Our goal is to identify activity patterns in these corresponding cortical and striatal zones in relation to action selection, reinforcement contingencies, decision variables, and automatization. To this end we have developed a joystick task and propose to record simultaneously from multiple sites in cortical areas and the striatum. We propose to analyze ensemble recording data, analyzing variations in responses over time during and between task trials. We have developed a step- by-step experimental strategy to do all ensemble recordings in relation to anatomically-defined corticostriatal and cortricocortical networks originating in cortical regions implicated in behavioral selection, and to identify networks differentially targeting striosomes and matrisomes in the striatum. The proposed work will contribute to a systematic, population-level analysis of cortico-basal ganglia activity related to action selection. This work has potential significance for studies of cortical and basal ganglia function and also for studies related to cortico-basal ganglia loop disorders including neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and neuropsychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorders and Tourette's syndrome.

Thesaurus Terms:
cingulate gyrus, corpus striatum, neural information processing, neuroanatomy, prefrontal lobe /cortex, psychobiology
basal ganglia, brain mapping, choice, electrophysiology, interneuron, neuron, neuronal transport, performance, stimulus /response
Macaca, autoradiography, behavior test, electrode, histology, magnetic resonance imaging, radiotracer, stereotaxic technique

Institution: MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE
CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139
Fiscal Year: 2006
Department: BRAIN AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES
Project Start: 01-JUL-1988
Project End: 30-JUN-2008
ICD: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE
IRG: ZRG1

J Neurophysiol 85: 960-976, 2001; 022-307
The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 85 No. 2 February 2001, pp. 960-976

Copyright ©2001 by the American Physiological Society

Neurons in the Thalamic CM-Pf Complex Supply Striatal Neurons With Information About Behaviorally Significant Sensory Events
 
Naoyuki Matsumoto,^1,3 Takafumi Minamimoto,¹ Ann M. Graybiel,² and Minoru Kimura1,^3
 
1Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, Osaka University, Osaka 560-0043, Japan; ²Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139; and ³Department of Physiology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan

Behavioral paradigms
Three macaque monkeys (Macaca fuscata: monkey TM, male, 6.5 kg; monkey AK, female, 6.7 kg; and monkey NA, female, 5.6 kg) were used in this study. The experiments were carried out in compliance with the guidelines for the care and use of experimental animals of the Physiological Society of Japan. Monkeys were trained to sit in a primate chair in a soundproof, electrically shielded room. Ambient illumination was controlled and was dim (monkeys AK and NA; 1.2 cd/m2) or dark (monkey TM; 0.15 cd/m2). A small panel (54 × 23 cm) was placed 50 cm in front of monkeys AK and NA, and 22 cm in front of monkey TM (Fig. 1A). A light-emitting diode (LED) was attached at the center of the panel. The LED could be illuminated (300 cd/m2) under computer control. Before conditioning, click noises made by a solenoid valve, beep sounds (1 kHz, 100 ms duration), flashes of the LED (100 ms duration), and drops of reward water on a spoon in front of the monkey's mouth were presented independently in random order at a fixed time interval (7 s; Fig. 1B). Two tasks were used for behavioral conditioning. One was the stimulus with reward (WR) task, in which the solenoid clicks were followed by reward water delivered 200 ms later. The second task was the stimulus without reward (WOR) task, in which clicks, beeps, and LED flashes were presented without reward (Fig. 1B). The three types of sensory stimuli were presented separately in blocks of 20-30 trials, except in special tests in monkeys TM and AK. In each block of trials, the stimuli occurred at variable intertrial intervals ranging from 5 to 12 s. The stimuli appeared in random order in monkey NA. In monkey NA, to test the somatosensory responses of CM-Pf neurons, tactile stimulation was applied manually to the neck, shoulder, back, or hands by means of a stimulus probe.

The Journal of Neuroscience, December 17, 2003, 23(37):11741-11752

Synchronous, Focally Modulated -Band Oscillations Characterize Local Field Potential Activity in the Striatum of Awake Behaving Monkeys
 
Richard Courtemanche,¹ * Naotaka Fujii,² * and Ann M. Graybiel<sup>2

1</sup>Department of Exercise Science, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada H4B 1R6, and ²Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Subjects and task.
The experiments (33 on each monkey) were performed on two adult female monkeys (Macaca mulatta) (M7, 6 kg; M8, 5 kg) trained previously to perform oculomotor tasks (Courtemanche et al., 2001 ; Fujii and Graybiel, 2001 ; Blazquez et al., 2002 ). Each monkey had an eye coil implanted in one eye to measure eye displacement (Fuchs and Robinson, 1966 ), a head bolt for head fixation, and a recording chamber that could be fitted with a grid for microelectrode placement. The chamber of monkey M7 was aligned with the horizontal plane, centered at stereotypic anterior coordinate A20, and allowed bilateral recordings; the chamber of M8 was implanted on the left side at a 20° angle from the sagittal plane and was centered at A21. The monkeys either rested or performed a visually guided single-saccade task in which the monkey faced a computer screen with a 9 x 9 array of gray dots. The monkey's task was first to fixate the central dot for a period of 700 msec to 1 sec. Feedback to the monkey on her fixation performance was given by turning the center dot from gray to red when eye position was within ±1.25° of the target. After the fixation period, the fixation dot was extinguished and a peripheral dot at a distance of 5° in any of four eccentric locations (0, 90, 180, or 270°) turned red. The monkey's task was to saccade to this location within 400 msec to be rewarded with drops of water 400-800 msec later. Monkeys usually performed 30-40 trials of the task in a block design but sometimes performed longer trial blocks as well. Task parameters were controlled by a computer and custom software. Sessions of quiet rest, in which the monkey simply sat in the chair with head fixed but with eye movements permitted, were also collected for periods of 1-5 min. We noted the occurrence of dozing off periods during data acquisition of the rest condition and identified drowsiness segments off-line by the slow drift in the eye-position recordings.