Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Control in Cortico-Basal Ganglia Circuits

How do we adapt our actions to different situations–from looking left or right at road-crossings in different countries to following complex rules that structure our daily routines? Such cognitive control depends on frontal cortex, but little is known of the circuit mechanisms through which it acts. Compelling theories suggest that frontal cortex flexibly controls behaviour by working through basal ganglia, repurposing similar circuit mechanisms as for basic action selection. These theories are based on the recursive architecture of cortico-basal ganglia loops, and are consistent with correlative studies in primates–yet direct evidence and mechanistic insight are lacking. Our preliminary findings identify such a control mechanism in the cortex-basal ganglia network of mice, and therefore afford the opportunity to resolve its circuit implementation. We will identify (i) circuit principles that implement cognitive control in the frontal cortex-basal ganglia network; (ii) how these circuits are shaped by learning to support cognitive control; and (iii) whether these principles generalise to higher levels of abstraction to enable hierarchical cognitive control. This will provide circuit-level understanding of cognitive control, and potentially reveal a common generalisable circuit principle—used recursively to govern increasingly complex behaviors.