The Organization of Corticostriatal Connectivity in the Human Brain

Abstract

Neurological and psychiatric disorders reveal that the basal ganglia subserve diverse functional domains, including movement, reward, and cognitive disorders (e.g., Parkinson's disease, addiction, schizophrenia). Monkey anatomical studies show that the striatum, the input structure of the basal ganglia, receives projections from nearly the entire cerebral cortex with a broad topography of motor, limbic, and association zones. However, until recently, non-invasive methods have not been available to conduct the complete mapping of the cortex to the striatum in humans. The development of functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) now allows the identification of functional connections in humans. The present dissertation reports two studies that first create a complete map of corticostriatal connectivity and then more closely examine striatal connectivity with association networks underlying cognition.