Basal ganglia

The basal ganglia (or basal nuclei) are three areas under the cerebral cortex. They are part of the cerebrum (forebrain), and connected to the midbrain and the thalamus. They are vital to movement, and damage here results is damaged ability to move.

The three areas are:

1. striatum
   1. caudate nucleus
   2. putamen
2. pallidum (or globus pallidus)
   1. substantia nigra
   2. nucleus accubens
3. subthalamic nucleus

The range of behaviours controlled by the nuclei is wide. They control eye movements.^[1] They do voluntary motor control, learning procedures for routine behaviors or "habits", and cognitive emotional functions.^[2][3]

The basal ganglia also control motivation. They select actions, that is, the choice of what to do at a given time.^[2][4] Experimental studies show that the basal ganglia inhibit (suppress) a number of motor systems. A release of this inhibition lets a motor system act. This "behaviour switching" is influenced by signals from many parts of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, which plays a key role in doing things.^[3][5]

1. ↑ Hikosaka, O; Takikawa, Y; Kawagoe, R (2000). "Role of the basal ganglia in the control of purposive saccadic eye movements". Physiological Reviews. 80 (3): 953–78. doi:10.1152/physrev.2000.80.3.953. PMID 10893428.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Stocco, Andrea; Lebiere, Christian; Anderson, John R. (2010). "Conditional routing of information to the cortex: a model of the basal ganglia's role in cognitive coordination". Psychological Review. 117 (2): 541–74. doi:10.1037/a0019077. PMC 3064519. PMID 20438237.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Weyhenmeyer, James A.; Gallman, Eve A. (2007). Rapid review of neuroscience. Mosby Elsevier. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-323-02261-3.
4. ↑ Chakravarthy, V. S.; Joseph, Denny; Bapi, Raju S. (2010). "What do the basal ganglia do? A modeling perspective". Biological Cybernetics. 103 (3): 237–53. doi:10.1007/s00422-010-0401-y. PMID 20644953. S2CID 853119.
5. ↑ Cameron I.G.; et al. (2010). "Executive impairment in Parkinson's disease: response automaticity and task switching". Neuropsychologia. 48 (7): 1948–57. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.03.015. PMID 20303998. S2CID 9993548.