Talk:Cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop

Explanation for technical tag
Hi. The lede section of the article is almost wholly technical, telling a general reader only that the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop is a system of neural circuits in the brain. I have moved the bit about what body/cognitive functions are involved up because a general reader will understand it.

However, the rest of the lede relies on the reader knowing the meaning of far too many technical words: dopaminergic, pars compacta, substantia nigra, ventral tegmental, glutamatergic, striatum, segregated parallel processing, convergence, rostro-caudal axis. Could this material be moved into the body of the article and replaced in the lede with a sentence more accessible to the public about which parts of the brain are involved (the cortex only? or the cortex and other parts?) and why the loop is an example of parallel processing (the nerves in the loop don't interact with other parts of the cortex??). 70.67.193.176 (talk) 22:00, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Diagram shows no direct link between GPe and GPi, yet text refers to one
Hi, I'm not an expert in this area but in attempting to read the article while looking in the first diagram to view what is being described, I had a problem when I reached this section of the text:

"Two pathways emerge from the striatum. One pathway is called the indirect (or NoGo) pathway and is inhibitory. This projects to and inhibits the globus pallidus externus (GPe), resulting in the disinhibition of the globus pallidus internus (GPi), leading to inhibition of the thalamus. This pathway also, as a result of inhibiting the GPe, disinhibits the subthalamic nucleus, which results in excitation of the GPi, and therefore inhibition of the thalamus."

I was unable to discern on the large, full-color diagram (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Basal_ganglia_circuits.svg) a direct link from the GPe to the GPi, as described in the above excerpt. The other diagram on this page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CBGTC.svg) does show such a direct link between the GPe and the GPi. Also, while an indirect link from the GPe to the GPi is shown via the STN, that indirect link is described separately in the final sentence of the section quoted above, and so the penultimate sentence cannot be referring to it when it says "leading to inhibition of the thalamus."

I do not feel sufficiently qualified to add a link to this diagram myself. So I am using this Talk page to bring the discrepancy to the attention of those better qualified to correct such an inconsistency. Diversitti (talk) 08:30, 6 February 2021 (UTC)