Reduced models of striatal neurons: dopamine modulation and dynamics

Loss of dopamine cells in Parkinson's Disease and its animal models leads to profound motor deficits. An intact dopamine system also seems to be critical for many forms of learning [1]. Much work on understanding these roles of dopamine has focused on the striatum, the main input nucleus of the basal ganglia, as the striatum is the main locus of dopamine's action in the verterbrate brain [2]. Damage to the striatum itself also impairs both motor action and learning [3]. Thus, the twin problems of understanding the computational roles of dopamine and the striatum are inseparably intertwined.