Adaptive Functions of the Corpus Striatum: The Past and Future of the R-Complex

The basal ganglia is emerging from the shadow cast by the most conspicuous clinical expression of its dysfunction: motor disorders.What is revealed is the nexus of a widely distributed system which functions in integrating action with cognition, motivation, and affect. Prominent among non-motor functions are striatal involvement in building up of sequences of behavior into meaningful, goal-directed patterns and repertoires and the selection of appropriate learned or innate sequences in concert with their possible predictive control. Further, striatum seems involved in declarative and strategic memory (involving intentional recollection and the management of retrieved memories, respectively). Findings from reptile experiments indicate striatal control over specific assemblies of innate units of behavior that involve autonomic modulation. Its involvement in the appropriate expression of species-typical action patterns in reptiles and primates provides an interesting vantage point from which to interpret its involvement in the assembly of units of behavior into specific adaptive behavioral patterns.

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