The Human Striatum is Necessary for Responding to Changes in Stimulus Relevance

Various lines of evidence suggest that the striatum is implicated in cognitive flexibility. The neuropsychological evidence has, for the most part, been based on research with patients with Parkinson's disease, which is accompanied by chemical disruption of both the striatum and the prefrontal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cognitive neuroscience 2006-12, Vol.18 (12), p.1973-1983
Main Authors: Cools, R., Ivry, R. B., D'Esposito, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Anatomical correlates of behavior
Behavior
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain
Brain Damage, Chronic - physiopathology
Brain Damage, Chronic - psychology
Brain research
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition - physiology
Female
Frontal Lobe - physiopathology
Functional Laterality - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Measurement techniques
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Neostriatum - physiopathology
Nervous system
Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Reaction Time - physiology
Stroke - physiopathology
Stroke - psychology
Testing
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
Tumors
Visual Fields - physiology
Visual Perception - physiology
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Summary:Various lines of evidence suggest that the striatum is implicated in cognitive flexibility. The neuropsychological evidence has, for the most part, been based on research with patients with Parkinson's disease, which is accompanied by chemical disruption of both the striatum and the prefrontal cortex. The present study examined this issue by testing patients with focal lesions of the striatum on a task measuring two forms of cognitive switching. Patients with striatal, but not frontal lobe lesions, were impaired in switching between concrete sensory stimuli. By contrast, both patient groups were unimpaired when switching between abstract task rules relative to baseline nonswitch trials. These results reveal a dissociation between two distinct forms of cognitive f lexibility, providing converging evidence for a role of the striatum in f lexible control functions associated with the selection of behaviorally relevant stimuli.
ISSN:0898-929X
1530-8898
DOI:10.1162/jocn.2006.18.12.1973