How do we decide what we do? This is the essence of action control, the process of selecting the most appropriate response among multiple possible choices. Suboptimal action control can involve a failure to initiate or adapt actions, or conversely it can involve making actions impulsively. There has been an increasing focus on the specific role of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in action control. This has been fueled by the clinical relevance of this basal ganglia nucleus as a target for deep brain stimulation (DBS), primarily in Parkinson’s disease but also in obsessive-compulsive disorder. The context of DBS has opened windows to study STN function in ways that link neuroscientific and clinical fields closely together, contributing to an exceptionally high level of two-way translation. In this review, we first outline the role of the STN in both motor and nonmotor action control, and then discuss how these functions might be implemented by neuronal activity in the STN. Gaining a better understanding of these topics will not only provide important insights into the neurophysiology of action control but also the pathophysiological mechanisms relevant for several brain disorders and their therapies.

我们如何决定我们做什么？这是动作控制的本质，动作控制是在多个可能的选择中选择最适当的响应的过程。次佳的动作控制可能会导致无法启动或调整动作，或者相反，可能会导致冲动地进行动作。人们越来越关注丘脑底核（STN）在动作控制中的特定作用。这种基底神经节核作为深部脑刺激（DBS）靶标的临床相关性助长了这种情况，主要是在帕金森氏病中，在强迫症中也是如此。DBS的上下文打开了以将神经科学和临床领域紧密联系在一起的方式研究STN功能的窗口，从而为双向翻译提供了极高的水平。在这篇评论中，我们首先概述了STN在运动和非运动控制中的作用，然后讨论了STN中的神经元活动如何实现这些功能。更好地理解这些主题，不仅可以为行动控制的神经生理学提供重要的见解，而且还可以提供与几种脑部疾病及其治疗方法相关的病理生理机制。