The basal ganglia communicate with the cerebellum

The basal ganglia and cerebellum are major subcortical structures that influence not only movement, but putatively also cognition and affect. Both structures receive input from and send output to the cerebral cortex. Thus, the basal ganglia and cerebellum form multisynaptic loops with the cerebral cortex. Basal ganglia and cerebellar loops have been assumed to be anatomically separate and to perform distinct functional operations. We investigated whether there is any direct route for basal ganglia output to influence cerebellar function that is independent of the cerebral cortex. We injected rabies virus (RV) into selected regions of the cerebellar cortex in cebus monkeys and used retrograde transneuronal…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• OO
  Office of Research and Development

  Award: R01 NS24328
• TJ
  Thomas Jefferson University
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: R01 NS24328, NS24328, P40 RR018604, R01 MH56661
• NS
  Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada