For example, in Bogacz and Gurney (2007)’s model, the average STN activity is predicted to be proportional to the logarithm of the normalization term in Bayes’ theorem, which in the model is used to form the decision variable in terms of the accumulated evidence. In Rao (2010)’s model, the STN is partly responsible for choosing the best action based on belief check details representation in the striatum, although it was not explicitly reported what the STN firing rate would look like. A comparison among the model predictions and actual STN activity patterns during the dots

task will help to elucidate the STN’s roles in the decision process. Likewise, more extensive recordings from the output nuclei of the basal ganglia, including the SNr for the oculomotor circuit, are needed to understand how the inputs are transformed and subsequently affect processing

elsewhere. Third, Linsitinib cost how do the basal ganglia’s roles in perceptual decision making relate to their known functional and anatomical properties? For example, do the direct and indirect pathways play similar, complementary roles in perceptual decision making as they do in motor control? Are perceptual decisions processed in their own functional loops, in loops related to the motor context of the decision, or in more general functional loops? The relationship between perceptual and reward-based processing merits particular attention. One intriguing possibility is that the same circuit contributes to both types of decisions, converting sensory evidence and value expectation into a common currency that can be used as a decision variable. One way to answer this question is to train monkeys on a perceptual task (e.g., the dots task)

and a value-based decision task (e.g., the asymmetric reward saccade task) and directly test whether and how the same neurons are influenced by manipulations of sensory properties DNA ligase and reward expectation. Alternatively, one can train monkeys to perform a single task with manipulations of both sensory properties and reward associations (Nomoto et al., 2010 and Rorie et al., 2010) and examine whether single neurons respond to variations in both sensory evidence and reward expectation, and if so, how such variations are combined in the basal ganglia. Lastly, why is basal ganglia dysfunction more frequently associated with motor than with perceptual deficits? This widely recognized clinical observation has been a pillar in motor-centric views of the basal ganglia.