Direct and indirect pathway neurons in posterior dorsomedial striatum were found to play distinct roles, with the former necessary for encoding and the latter for updating goal-directed learning.

In addition to modulating firing rates, the neurotransmitter dopamine exerts a strong influence on the overall number of neurons in striatum that are recruited during behavior.

In addition to its classic role in synaptic function and plasticity, macroautophagy regulates neuronal intrinsic excitability via degradation of acetylated Kir2 channels to control neurotransmission.

The discovery of somatostatin-positive inhibitory neurons projecting from mouse cortex to striatum shows that corticostriatal pathways are not exclusively excitatory.

Protein kinase A regulates the rapid, activity-dependent genesis of excitatory synapses during striatal development.

Although human Parkinson's disease is linked to dopamine loss, two distinct mutations in a kinase associated with familial Parkinson's operate downstream, altering excitatory synapses on dopamine-sensing neurons.

Fast-spiking interneurons of the dorsolateral striatum are found to provide a microcircuit mechanism driving the circuit properties and behavioral adaptations that characterize habit.

In rodents and primates, there are two subtypes of parvalbumin-expressing interneurons that provide novel substrates for selective inhibition in the striatum.

In mouse models of Huntington's disease, striatal spiny projection neurons up-regulate dendritic potassium channels, which impairs their normal function, but a zinc finger gene therapy can reverse this deficit.