Encoding of conditioned reflex activity in different directions by neurons in the monkey striatum.

Two types of neuron spike activity were detected in the striatum (putamen) of monkeys: patterns with low and high activity. Low-activity patterns were no more than twice the level of baseline activity, while high-activity patterns had larger factors. An individual neuron could generate different patterns during different actions. On performance of tasks requiring movement in different directions, the greatest differences in the sets of neurons with high-activity patterns were seen during preparation and onset of the movement in the chosen direction and on completion of the movement. Differences between the sets of neurons with low-activity patterns, conversely, decreased at these behavior stages. They were maximal before presentation of the conditioned signal, when the animal was still unaware of the task, and at the end of the program, when the alternative choice task had been completed. These data provide evidence that the encoding of signals reflecting the involvement of the striatum in solving the alternative choice task occurs by means of multilevel addressed signal encoding. The main role in this is played by changes in the set of neurons generating patterns of different levels of activity.