The Basal Ganglia viewed as an Action Selection Device

The action selection problem describes the task of resolving conflicts between the different functional systems that can control behavior. This paper reviews the role of the basal ganglia (BG) summarising evidence that they function within the vertebrate brain architecture as a specialized action selection device. There is a rich connectivity within the BG whose function is not well understood. We outline a new computational model of BG intrinsic pathways which demonstrates that these circuits could allow the BG to implement clean switching between competing functional systems.