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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience pp 1–15Cite as

Basal Ganglia System as an Engine for Exploration

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Definition

The basal ganglia (BG) system is a deep brain circuit with wide-ranging brain functions. Exploration refers to the sampling of a variety of behaviors not firmly established within a learned repertoire. While the neural source of variability driving exploration within the subcortex has not been identified, the hypothesis that the indirect pathway of the BG is the subcortical substrate for exploration leads to explanations for how a range of putative BG functions might be performed.

Detailed Description

Reinforcement Learning and the Basal Ganglia

For nearly a century, a certain “mysteriousness” has been attributed to the function of the basal ganglia (BG) system – a deep brain circuit of multiple interconnected nuclei, with rich connections to large parts of the cortex (Kinnier Wilson in his Croonian lectures in 1925, Marsden 1982). The mystique surrounding BG has its roots perhaps in the multifarious functions of this circuit. Action selection, action gating, sequence...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, 600036, TN, India

    Prof. V. Srinivasa Chakravarthy & Pragathi Priyadharsini Balasubramani

Authors
  1. Prof. V. Srinivasa Chakravarthy
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  2. Pragathi Priyadharsini Balasubramani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to V. Srinivasa Chakravarthy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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Chakravarthy, V.S., Balasubramani, P.P. (2014). Basal Ganglia System as an Engine for Exploration. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_81-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_81-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

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