Contracting model of the basal ganglia

Benoît Girard (1) , Nicolas Tabareau (1) , Jean-Jacques Slotine (2) , Alain Berthoz (1)

1 LPPA - Laboratoire de Physiologie de la Perception et de l'Action
2 NSL - Nonlinear System Laboratory

It is thought that one role of the basal ganglia is to constitute the neural substrate of action selection. We propose here a modification of the action selection model of the basal ganglia of (Gurney et al., 2001a,b) so as to improve its dynamical features. The dynamic behaviour of this new model is assessed by using the theoretical tool of contraction analysis. We simulate the model in the standard test defined in (Gurney et al., 2001b) and also show that it performs perfect selection when presented a thousand successive random entries. From a biomimetical point of view, our model takes into account a usually neglected projection from GPe to the striatum, which enhances its efficiency.

Mots clés: contraction analysis; action selection; basal ganglia; computational model

Domaines: Neurosciences

Benoît Girard, Nicolas Tabareau, Jean-Jacques Slotine, Alain Berthoz. Contracting model of the basal ganglia. Modeling Natural Action Selection, 2005, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. pp.69-76. ⟨hal-00016414⟩