Topic: sensory-driven behaviors

The striatum, the input nucleus of the basal ganglia, has primarily been implicated in the generation, initiation and selection of motor commands. In contrast to its anterior sub-area, the posterior part (pStr) or the “tail” of the striatum, is heavily innervated by auditory, visual and somatosensory regions suggesting its unique role in sensory-driven behaviors. Recent studies have shown a role for auditory pStr afferents in learned defensive behaviors. Despite these evidences, much remains unknown about striatal responses to various sensory modalities, their cellular specificity and how mult