The striatum receives projections from multiple regions of the cerebral cortex consistent with the role of the basal ganglia in diverse motor, affective, and cognitive functions. Within the striatum, the caudate receives projections from association cortex including multiple distinct regions of prefrontal cortex. Building on recent insights about the details of how juxtaposed cortical networks are specialized for distinct aspects of higher-order cognition, we revisited caudate organization using within-individual precision neuroimaging initially in two intensively scanned individuals (each scanned 31 times). Results revealed that the caudate has side-by-side regions that are coupled to at least five distinct distributed association networks, paralleling the organization observed in the cerebral cortex. We refer to these spatial groupings of regions as striatal association megaclusters. Correlation maps from closely juxtaposed seed regions placed within the megaclusters recapitulated the five distinct cerebral networks including their multiple spatially distributed regions. Striatal association megaclusters were explored in 15 additional participants (each scanned at least 8 times) finding that their presence generalizes to new participants. Analysis of the laterality of the regions within the megaclusters further revealed that they possess asymmetries paralleling their cortical counterparts. For example, caudate regions linked to the language network were left-lateralized. These results extend the general notion of parallel specialized basal ganglia circuits, with the additional discovery that even within the caudate, there is fine-grained separation of multiple distinct higher-order networks that reflect the organization and lateralization found in the cerebral cortex.

中文翻译：

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人类纹状体协会巨团

纹状体接收来自大脑皮层多个区域的投射，这与基底神经节在不同运动、情感和认知功能中的作用一致。在纹状体内，尾状核接收来自联合皮层的投射，包括前额叶皮层的多个不同区域。基于最近关于并置皮质网络如何专门用于高阶认知的不同方面的细节的见解，我们首先使用个体内精确神经成像对两个进行密集扫描的个体（每个个体扫描 31 次）重新审视了尾状核组织。结果显示，尾状核具有并排的区域，这些区域与至少五个不同的分布式关联网络耦合，与大脑皮层中观察到的组织平行。我们将这些区域的空间分组称为纹状体关联巨簇。巨簇内紧密并置的种子区域的相关图概括了五个不同的大脑网络，包括它们的多个空间分布区域。对另外 15 名参与者（每人扫描至少 8 次）的纹状体关联巨簇进行了探索，发现它们的存在普遍适用于新参与者。对巨簇内区域的侧向性分析进一步表明，它们具有与皮质对应区域平行的不对称性。例如，与语言网络相关的尾状核区域是左偏的。这些结果扩展了并行专门基底神经节回路的一般概念，并发现即使在尾状核内，也存在多个不同的高阶网络的细粒度分离，这些网络反映了大脑皮层中发现的组织和偏侧化。