A spiking model of basal ganglia dynamics in stopping behavior supported by arkypallidal neurons

Abstract

The common view that stopping action plans by the basal ganglia is achieved mainly by the subthalamic nucleus alone due to its direct excitatory projection onto the output nuclei of the basal ganglia has been challenged by recent findings. The proposed "pause-then-cancel" model suggests that the subthalamic nucleus provides a rapid stimulus-unspecific "pause" signal, followed by a stop-cue-specific "cancel" signal from striatum-projecting arkypallidal neurons. To determine more precisely the relative contribution of the different basal ganglia nuclei in stopping, we simulated a stop-signal task with a spiking neuron model of the basal ganglia, considering recently discovered connections from the arkypallidal neurons, and cortex-projecting GPe neurons. For the arkypallidal and prototypical GPe neurons, we obtained neuron model parameters by fitting their neuronal responses to published experimental data.Our model replicates findings of stop-signal tasks at neuronal and behavioral levels.We provide evidence for the existence of a stop-related cortical input to the arkypallidal and cortex-projecting GPe neurons such that the stop responses of the subthalamic nucleus, the arkypallidal neurons, and the cortex-projecting GPe neurons complement each other to achieve functional stopping behavior. Particularly, the cortex-projecting GPe neurons may complement the stopping within the basal ganglia caused by the arkypallidal and STN neurons by diminishing cortical go-related processes. Furthermore, we predict effects of lesions on stopping performance and propose that arkypallidal neurons mainly participate in stopping by inhibiting striatal neurons of the indirect rather than the direct pathway.

Identifying control ensembles for information processing within the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuit

“…The pathways that we included also represent only a subset of the known connections within the broader CBGT circuit. Other populations and pathways, such as arkypallidal neurons [53] or the cortico-STN (i.e., hyperdirect) pathway [54–56], were not included in our simulations. These may play additional roles as parts of the control ensembles identified here, as well as possible new control ensembles, for example one contributing to a global inhibition factor capable of preventing an action from being performed.…”

Dissociable Roles of Pallidal Neuron Subtypes in Regulating Motor Patterns

“…The cellular mechanisms that mediate motor-suppression have yet to be identified. While Foxp2 + neurons have been proposed to send "stop" signals to the striatum (Mallet et al, 2016;Aristieta et al, 2020;Goenner et al, 2020), it is likely that multiple circuit elements are involved in producing complete behavioral arrest (Schmidt et al, 2013;Jahanshahi et al, 2015;Wessel and Aron, 2017). On the other hand, it is clear that the inhibitory projection to the STN (and substantial pars reticulata) mediates the motor-promoting effects, and it is consistent with the established relationship between STN activity and movement suppression (Hamani et al, 2004;Aron and Poldrack, 2006;Aron et al, 2007;Eagle et al, 2008;Schmidt et al, 2013;Schweizer et al, 2014;Fife et al, 2017;Wessel and Aron, 2017).…”

BOLD Monitoring in the Neural Simulator ANNarchy

“…The neural simulator ANNarchy is primarily concerned with models ranging from the mesoscopic to the microscopic level that simulate biological neurons as single units and can thus account for more detailed processes, which can include different ionic membrane currents and account for the dynamics of specific classes of real neurons (Humphries et al, 2009 ; Corbit et al, 2016 ; Goenner et al, 2021 ). Thus, ANNarchy allows to consider various neural processes for the implementation and investigation of neurovascular coupling.…”