The basal ganglia consist of interconnected nuclei, which process the information received from different cortical and sub-cortical areas. A growing number of studies show that the role and anatomical connection in each area of the basal ganglia is well organized along the brain axes, the rostral-caudal axis and medial-lateral axis. These axially separated roles, from the simple motor movement to cognitive behavior, are found in various model systems, including rodents, non-human primates and humans. It is therefore fundamental to collect data on the heterogeneous roles of each region in the basal ganglia, across different species, to extract a general idea of the functions separated by axes.

This Research Topic aims to collect a wide range of articles on the anatomical connections and the heterogeneous functions organized over the axes of basal ganglia in various brain research models. We welcome Orignal Research and Review articles focused on the function of a specific area of the basal ganglia, as well as articles on the comparison between the roles and neural connections of different basal ganglia areas. Finally, we also like to encourage the submission of articles on the heterogeneous functions of neuromodulatory neurons, such as cholinergic and dopaminergic neurons in the basal ganglia.

The aim of this collection of articles is to find a fundamental principle for the functions of the basal ganglia separated by the anatomical axes.

Keywords: Basal ganglia, heterogeneity, anatomical neural circuit, reward, memory

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.