A theory about a role of the hyper direct pathway in pattern expression by the Basal Ganglia

The Basal Ganglia (BG) are a group of nuclei, in the brain of mammalians and other vertebrates, strongly connected with the cerebral cortex, thalamus and other brain areas. The BG are associated with several brain functions including learning and motor control. When there is cortical activation, there is a strong synchronization between BG and cortex, i.e. when a given task is being executed or in the case of Parkinson disease. If we consider the internal segment of the Globus Pallidus (GPi) there is synchronism between GPi-cortex at frequencies as low as 3Hz to as high as 85Hz. In the other hand, in a delta sleep or in an anesthetized case, a very low frequency correlation is observed (1-10 Hz), but no high frequency correlation between GPi-cortex. It is unknown why this decorrelation happens. But It is agreement that when there is no pattern to select, like in delta sleep or with an anesthetized model, the BG network would maintain the GPi and cortex decorrelated at high frequencies. Many thalamus-BG and thalamus-BG-cortex loops are modulators of the BG activity. Particularly there exists an anatomic thalamus-BG loop, formed by GPi, intralaminar thalamic nuclei (IL) and Subthalamic Nucleus (STN). Using a computational model, based on an “Integrate and Fire” neural network, we analyzed the IL nucleus as a modulator of the so-called hyper direct pathway. Our results show that, in an anesthetic case, this thalamic path could be relevant to allow a high frequency decorrelated state between the GPi and cortex.