A classic view of the striatum holds that activity in direct and indirect pathways oppositely modulates motor output. Whether this involves direct control of movement, or reflects a cognitive process underlying movement, has remained unresolved. Here we find that strong, opponent control of behavior by the two pathways of the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) depends on a task's cognitive demands. Furthermore, a latent state model (a hidden markov model with generalized linear model observations) reveals that-even within a single task-the contribution of the two pathways to behavior is state-dependent. Specifically, the two pathways have large contributions in one of two states associated with a strategy of evidence accumulation, compared to a state associated with a strategy of repeating previous choices. Thus, both the cognitive demands imposed by a task, as well as the strategy that mice pursue within a task, determine whether DMS pathways provide strong and opponent control of behavior.
A classic view of the striatum holds that activity in direct and indirect pathways oppositely modulates motor output. Whether this involves direct control of movement, or reflects a cognitive process underlying movement, has remained unresolved. Here we find that strong, opponent control of behavior by the two pathways of the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) depends on a task's cognitive demands. Furthermore, a latent state model (a hidden markov model with generalized linear model observations) reveals that - even within a single task - the contribution of the two pathways to behavior is state-dependent. Specifically, the two pathways have large contributions in one of two states associated with a strategy of evidence accumulation, compared to a state associated with a strategy of repeating previous choices. Thus, both the cognitive demands imposed by a task, as well as the strategy that mice pursue within a task, determine whether DMS pathways provide strong and opponent control of behavior.
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