Striatum

The striatum, also known as the neostriatum or striate nucleus, is a subcortical (i.e., inside, rather than on the outside) part of the forebrain. It is the major input station of the basal ganglia system. The striatum, in turn, gets input from the cerebral cortex. In primates (including humans), the striatum is divided by a white matter tract called the internal capsule into two sectors called the caudate nucleus and putamen. The term corpus striatum sometimes refers to the striatum combined with the globus pallidus, a structure closely related to the putamen, and the lenticular nucleus refers to the putamen together with the globus pallidus.