Topic: cortico-basal ganglia circuits

Learning requires a multitude of steps until efficiency. The process of acquisition, consolidation and automatization depends on cortico-basal ganglia circuits. These circuits are topographically organized into parallel limbic, associative and sensorimotor loops coursing through the ventromedial (VMS), dorsomedial (DMS) and dorsolateral striatum (DLS), respectively; they dynamically interact and are recruited to different extents during initial, goal-directed and highly automatized learning stages, respectively. To date, a comprehensive expression profiling of the learning striatum is lacking.