Figure 11.

Block-selective shifts of the baseline firing rate in dorsolateral (A) and dorsomedial (B) striatum develop across the block and return in the subsequent block. Curves show average peak-normalized firing rates (±SEM) during the pre-response epoch (from the beginning of the trial to the beginning of the response) across the preferred block, and, for comparison, across the block with the same-valued outcomes in the same directions. Populations are the same as those shown in Figure 10. The increase in baseline firing rate developed across the preferred block as the rat learned the response–outcome contingencies, returned to its original level during the following block, and did not change during other blocks. These changes in the baseline firing rate are more consistent with encoding outcomes that are available on a particular block than with recording artifacts. First blocks of sessions were excluded from this analysis.