Basal ganglia
subcortical nuclei, of varied origin, in the brains of vertebrates
The basal ganglia (BG) or basal nuclei are a group of subcortical nuclei (cluster of neurons) found in the brains of vertebrates. Positioned at the base of the forebrain and the top of the midbrain, they have strong connections with the cerebral cortex, thalamus, brainstem and other brain areas. The basal ganglia are associated with a variety of functions, including regulating voluntary motor movements, procedural learning, habit formation, conditional learning, eye movements, cognition, and emotion.
The main functional components of the basal ganglia include the striatum, consisting of both the dorsal striatum (caudate nucleus and putamen) and the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle), the globus pallidus, the ventral pallidum, the substantia nigra, and the subthalamic nucleus. Each of these components has complex internal anatomical and neurochemical structures. The largest component, the striatum (dorsal and ventral), receives input from various brain areas but only sends output to other components of the basal ganglia. The globus pallidus receives input from the striatum and sends inhibitory output to a number of motor-related areas. The substantia nigra is the source of the striatal input of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which plays an important role in basal ganglia function. The subthalamic nucleus mainly receives input from the striatum and cerebral cortex and projects to the globus pallidus.
The basal ganglia are thought to play a key role in action selection, aiding in the choice of behaviors to execute.
“Basal ganglia” enters the record as subcortical nuclei, of varied origin, in the brains of vertebrates. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Basal, ganglia and subcortical can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Basal ganglia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.