A specific role for posterior dorsolateral striatum in human habit learning - summary of an atrticle by Tricomi, Balleine & O'Doherty (2009)

A specific role for posterior dorsolateral striatum in human habit learning
Tricomi, Balleine, & O’Doherty (2009)
European journal of neuroscience

Abstract

Extensive training on a free-operant task reduces the sensitivity of participants’ behaviour to a reduction in outcome value. There is an increase in task-related cue sensitivity in a right posterior putamen/globus pallidus region as training progressed.

Cue-driven activation in a specific region of dorsolateral posterior putamen may contribute to the habitual control of behaviour in humans.

Introduction

The development of habits allows responses to be efficiently executed, freeing up valuable cognitive resources.

Different neural systems contribute to habitual and goal-directed behaviour and learning. Goal directed action are in the prefrontal cortex and the dorsomedial striatum.  Habit-based behaviour are in the dorsolateral striatum

Discussion

There is a habit learning system in humans.

There is a region in the posterior putamen extending into the globus pallidus that becomes increasingly sensitive to stimuli that were associated with a particular behavioural response, consistent with a potential role in S-R learning. The posterior putamen/globus pallidus region may play a central role in the development and/or control of habitual behaviour in humans.

The transition from goal-directed to habitual control of behaviour is highly dynamic and the early phase of the habit learning process occurs even while behaviour is still demonstrably goal-directed. The recruitment of the DLS, and the degree to which S-R associations influence performance, increases gradually with training.

S-R habit learning may be mediated separately from goal-directed learning. It is commonly thought to depend on a process of response-outcome association. The development of S-R habits, not response-outcome associations, relies on the DLS, which corresponds to the dorsal putamen in humans.

The vmPFC has been implicated in governing goal-directed action in humans. This region may play a role in supporting goal-directed behaviour by representing the value of the upcoming outcome. Habitual behaviour may come about because regions such as the DLS may come to preferentially influence behaviour. It appears that circuits responsible for goal-directed and habitual behaviour are simultaneously engaged, by may compete for control of behaviour.