Striatal dopamine (DA) release has been shown during behavioural tasks, but the relative contribution of motor, reward, and cognitive components is unclear. Dopamine release was quantified using [(11)C]-raclopride in two studies using a triple-scan approach, comprising active task, motor control, and rest. In the first, bolus radiotracer was delivered during a sequential motor learning paradigm...

The relative contributions of the medial and lateral caudate putamen to performance of a visual reaction time task were compared by examining the effects of unilateral ibotenate-induced lesions to these regions in the rat. Different groups of rats were trained to respond either towards (Discrimination 1) or away from (Discrimination 2) unpredictable, brief visual stimuli presented to either sid...

Early suggestions about the function of the neostriatum (NS) postulated that this structure was more related to cognitive activities than to motor functions (for a review see Refs 56, 67). Since, in the past, the cerebral ventricles were thought to be the seat of ‘‘psychic spirits’’ such as imagination and memory, also the NS, which is close to the ventricles, was implicated in these cognitive ...

We show that presentation of individual canary song syllables results in distinct expression patterns of the immediate-early gene ZENK in the caudomedial neostriatum (NCM) of adult canaries. Information on the spatial distribution and labeling of stained cells provides for a classification of ZENK patterns that (1) accords to the organization of stimuli into families, (2) preserves the stimuli ...

In the adult brain, new neurons are produced in two "canonical" regions: the hippocampus and the olfactory bulb. Ernst et al. now show that, unlike other species, humans also display robust neurogenesis in the striatum, an unexpected finding with important physiological, pathological, and evolutionary implications.

In behavior reminiscent of the responsiveness of human infants to speech, young songbirds innately recognize and prefer to learn the songs of their own species. The acoustic and physiological bases for innate recognition were investigated in fledgling white-crowned sparrows lacking song experience. A behavioral test revealed that the complete conspecific song was not essential for innate recogn...

We explored the circumstances in which rats engage either declarative memory (and the hippocampus) or habit memory (and the dorsal striatum). Rats with damage to the hippocampus or dorsal striatum were given three different two-choice discrimination tasks (odor, object, and pattern). These tasks differed in the number of trials required for learning (approximately 10, 60, and 220 trials). Dorsa...