Surprises From the Basal Ganglia: Stop and Go Have New Meaning

This perspective highlights new work suggesting the need for revision of the canonical direct-indirect model of the basal ganglia's influence on movement, with fresh evidence that there is a formerly unappreciated pair of direct and indirect pathways that parallel the standard model's canonical direct and indirect pathways, and promising evidence pointing toward improved clinical treatments for Parkinson's disease. As a working hypothesis, it is suggested that the non-canonical direct and indirect pathways, which arise in striosomes, might act as homeostatic circuits that can reign in or amplify the activity of the canonical pathways in the face of their imbalance, including that occurring in hyperkinetic or hypokinetic disorders. © 2025 The Author(s). Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.