Prefrontal-Striatal information routing for choice selection

One of the main goals of systems neuroscience is to understand how different brain regions work together to make the best possible decisions. The prefrontal cortex, as a higher-order cortical area, is central to the balancing of optimal decision in different contexts and environments. The striatum as a major downstream target of the prefrontal cortex, is traditionally considered to be important for learning and the execution of goal-directed and habitual behavior. Despite a number of theories, it remains largely unknown how the prefrontal cortex communicates with and possibly directs the striatum to achieve the control of optimised behavioural control. Through the application of innovative methodological strategies, the project investigates how the neural communication of these two brain areas can form the basis for adaptive decision-making. The research results will provide evidence for or against current theories of cortico-striatal interaction, but more importantly, evidence for the basis of biased and impaired decision processing in psychiatric and neurological disorders. The project at the Medical University Innsbruck is also supported by an internationally renowned laboratory at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.