The dorsolateral striatum encodes a temporal basis for the organization of behavior

Abstract

To behave adaptively, the brain must register temporal structure in the environment and use it to organize behavior. The dorsolateral striatum (DLS) integrates sensorimotor cortical input, and is necessary for accurate timing and structuring behavior in general. However, if DLS provides the basis for mapping temporal features in the environment to behavior, its activity should predict variation in that mapping. A reanalysis of DLS population activity in rats comparing the duration of two sequentially presented vibratory stimuli revealed a striking correspondence between neural activity and behavior. Varying vibration intensity of the second stimulus induced systematic biases in temporal judgments, and corresponding biases in multiple features of DLS activity, including population coding of time. In contrast, the same intensity manipulations applied to the first stimulus affected neither behavior nor neural activity. Furthermore, neuronal response profiles were best described as a continuum, arguing against hypotheses where categories of responses, e.g., ramping activity, selectively underpin temporal processing. These data represent important additional evidence that striatal population dynamics support the organization of behavior by mapping temporal information to action.

Neural circuit models for evidence accumulation through choice-selective sequences

“…Thus, we illustrate two possible mechanisms for controlling information flow between positions. While not explicitly modeled here, such spatio-temporal gating could result from inputs from the basal ganglia [87][88][89][90] or place cells in the hippocampus. Other models have also considered how time may be accumulated to provide a timing signal 91 .…”

“…To achieve the transfer of information between positions, our models use a network architecture in which neurons project synaptically to neurons encoding the subsequent position, but these connections are only effective in transferring information when a position-gating signal pushes the receiving neurons above their firing threshold. While not explicitly modeled here, such spatio-temporal gating could result from inputs from the basal ganglia [92][93][94][95] or place cells in the hippocampus. The position gating signal in our model may itself result from an integration process, as in previous models of hippocampal path integration [81][82][83] .…”