Data from: Inhibitory basal ganglia nuclei differentially innervate pedunculopontine nucleus subpopulations and evoke opposite motor and valence behaviors

The canonical basal ganglia model predicts that the substantia nigra pars
reticulata (SNr) and the globus pallidus externa (GPe) will have specific
effects on locomotion: the SNr inhibiting locomotion and the GPe enhancing
it. In this manuscript, we use in vivo optogenetics to show that a
projection-defined neural subpopulation within each structure exerts
non-canonical effects on locomotion. These non-canonical subpopulations
are defined by their projection to the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) and
mediate opposing effects on reward. To understand how these structures
differentially modulate the PPN, we use ex vivo whole-cell recording with
optogenetics to comprehensively dissect the SNr and GPe connections to
regionally- and molecularly-defined populations of PPN neurons. The SNr
inhibits all PPN subtypes, but most strongly inhibits caudal glutamatergic
neurons. The GPe selectively inhibits caudal glutamatergic and GABAergic
neurons, avoiding both cholinergic and rostral cells. This circuit
characterization reveals non-canonical basal ganglia pathways for
locomotion and valence.