Involvement of the claustrum in the cortico-basal ganglia circuitry: connectional study in the non-human primate

The claustrum is an ancient telencephalic subcortical structure displaying extensive, reciprocal connections with much of the cortex and receiving projections from thalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus. This structure has a general role in modulating cortical excitability and is considered to be engaged in different cognitive and motor functions, such as sensory integration and perceptual binding, salience-guided attention, top-down executive functions, as well as in the control of brain states, such as sleep and its interhemispheric integration. The present study is the first to describe in detail a projection from the claustrum to the striatum in the macaque brain. Based on tracer injections in different striatal regions and in different cortical areas, we observed a rough topography of the claustral connectivity, thanks to which a claustral zone projects to both a specific striatal territory and to cortical areas involved in a network projecting to the same striatal territory. The present data add new elements of complexity of the basal ganglia information processing mode in motor and non-motor functions and provide evidence for an influence of the claustrum on both cortical functional domains and cortico-basal ganglia circuits.