Stable representation of sounds in the posterior striatum during flexible auditory decisions

Abstract

The neuronal pathways that link sounds to rewarded actions remain elusive. It is unclear whether neurons in the posterior tail of the dorsal striatum (which receive direct input from the auditory system) mediate action selection, as other striatal circuits do. Here, we examined the role of posterior striatal neurons in auditory decisions in mice. We found that, in contrast to the anterior dorsal striatum, activation of the posterior striatum did not elicit systematic movement. However, activation of posterior striatal neurons during sound presentation in an auditory discrimination task biased the animals choices, and transient inactivation of these neurons largely impaired sound discrimination. Moreover, the activity of these neurons reliably encoded stimulus features, but was only minimally influenced by the animals choices. Our results suggest that posterior striatal neurons play an essential role in auditory decisions, yet these neurons provide sensory information downstream rather than motor commands during well-learned sound-driven tasks.