Cholinergic midbrain afferents modulate striatal circuits and shape encoding of action strategies

Abstract

Acetylcholine (ACh) in the striatum is involved in mediating action flexibility. Here the authors show that midbrain cholinergic nuclei provide a new source of Ach in the striatum, form excitatory synapses with striatal cholinergic interneurons (CIN) and contribute to instrumental learning.