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Basal Ganglia

Motor control, habit formation, and reward processing.

Basal Ganglia — brain MRI

© Blausen Medical Communications · CC-BY

The basal ganglia are subcortical nuclei including the striatum (caudate and putamen), globus pallidus, subthalamic nucleus, and substantia nigra. They select and initiate motor programs, form habits through reinforcement learning, and process reward via dopaminergic projections. Parkinson's disease results from dopamine neuron loss in substantia nigra; Huntington's from striatal degeneration.

Functions

Motor controlHabit formationReward processingAction selection

Gallery

Basal ganglia MRI

Basal ganglia MRI

Basal ganglia diagram

Basal ganglia diagram

Brain

Brain

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