Strong and opponent contributions of dorsomedial striatal pathways to behavior depends on cognitive demands and task strategy

Abstract

A classic view of the striatum holds that activity in direct and indirect pathways oppositely modulates motor output. Whether this involves direct control of movement, or reflects a cognitive process underlying movement, has remained unresolved. Here we find that strong, opponent control of behavior by the two pathways of the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) depends on a task’s cognitive demands. Furthermore, a latent state model (a hidden markov model with generalized linear model observations) reveals that—even within a single task—the contribution of the two pathways to behavior is state-dependent. Specifically, the two pathways have large contributions in one of two states associated with a strategy of evidence accumulation, compared to a state associated with a strategy of repeating previous choices. Thus, both the cognitive demands imposed by a task, as well as the strategy that mice pursue within a task, determine whether DMS pathways provide strong and opponent control of behavior.