"Locking the system into its antedated ways" - The caudate in context recognition

While the basal ganglia are known to be crucially involved in movement, a more cognitive role is proposed by way of a frontal cortex-basal ganglia system. The striatum is proposed to recognize context and potentiate the appropriate rules already learned by the frontal cortex in guiding behavior (Wise, Murray, & Gerfen, 1996). To test this model, the present study trained four rats to learn the contexts and accompanying strategies of place and response, as well as the ability to switch between the two strategies. The striatum was then inactivated in order to impair context recognition, switching behavior, and rule-potentiating capabilities. Performance in these capacities was not impaired and plausible reasons and theories are discussed.