How to Use striatum in a Sentence

striatum

noun
  • The first, a circle where the hemispheres meet, is the ventral striatum.
    — Dhruv Khullar, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Researchers discovered this ramp pattern 10 years ago in a part of the brain called the striatum.
    — Kimberlee D'ardenne, The Conversation, 18 Sep. 2023
  • All are due to neuronal death in the movement-controlling striatum as well as the cerebral cortex.
    — Sharon Begley, Scientific American, 10 Dec. 2019
  • So the scientists focused their attention on the ventral striatum of the dogs.
    — Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 11 May 2012
  • There’s commonality across species in the involvement of a brain area like the striatum.
    — Quanta Magazine, 15 Feb. 2024
  • Researchers have looked at the striatum, a structure buried inside the middle of the brain, to better understand our habits.
    — Sahar Arshad, Discover Magazine, 3 Apr. 2021
  • This mental ability transpires within the brain machinery known as the striatum.
    — Susan Scutti, CNN, 9 Oct. 2017
  • One study found that when people received a lot of likes on social media, their ventral striatum lit up—the same brain region linked to rewards like food and money.
    — Dale Whelehan, TIME, 28 Feb. 2025
  • In the present study, the therapy was delivered to neurons in the movement-controlling striatum region in mouse brains.
    — New Atlas, 13 Oct. 2024
  • In people with Huntington’s disease, neurons in the striatum are among the most affected.
    — Jacqueline Howard, CNN Money, 24 Sep. 2025
  • Another region, the ventral striatum, is part of the brain’s reward and motivation system.
    — Amanda MacMillan, Time, 16 Aug. 2017
  • For example, neurons that release dopamine—a neurotransmitter that can boost pleasure—are found in the ventral striatum.
    — Elizabeth Rayne, Ars Technica, 3 July 2023
  • The process involves the striatum, a dopaminergic reward center that drugs like cocaine and amphetamines exploit.
    — Bill Hardekopf, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2021
  • The disk, a neurostimulator, then transmits a signal along a separate wire to the striatum to tamp down feelings of sadness and depression.
    — Gary Stix, Scientific American, 4 Oct. 2021
  • The second relevant brain difference concerned the ventral striatum.
    — Jonah Lehrer, WIRED, 6 Sep. 2011
  • The mesolimbic pathway channels dopamine from the ventral tegmental area to the ventral striatum, home to the nucleus accumbens—the brain’s pleasure hub.
    — Richard Menger Md Mpa, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025
  • Another region of my brain to light up with activity was the striatum - an area associated with drug addiction and craving.
    — The Washington Post, NOLA.com, 15 Feb. 2018
  • Duchenne smiles indicate intensity rather than genuineness, and stuttering is linked to astrocytes in the striatum.
    — Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 27 Apr. 2021
  • For example, the striatum, which is rich with dopamine receptors and with oxytocin receptors, is influenced by the process of caring for young and mating — and cocaine, by the way.
    — Quanta Magazine, 15 Feb. 2024
  • And when people refused to profit from harming others, the prefrontal cortex increased its communication with the striatum.
    — Molly Crockett, Scientific American Blog Network, 15 May 2017
  • In Sarah's case, the circuit ran from her amygdala, an area known to control fear and other strong emotions, to her ventral striatum, which is involved in decision-making.
    — Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY, 4 Oct. 2021
  • When their team succeeded, the ventral striatum lit up, signaling pleasure center activation.
    — Richard Menger Md Mpa, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025
  • As the name implies, the circuit connects structures deep in the brain—the basal ganglia, which includes the striatum, and the thalamus—with areas in the cortex closer to the brain’s surface.
    — Lydia Denworth, Scientific American, 1 Aug. 2021
  • By contrast none of the dopaminergic neurons projecting to the nearby dorsal striatum, involved in movement regulation do this.
    — Neuroskeptic, Discover Magazine, 28 June 2010
  • His animals are bred to have a special protein in their auditory striatum that fluoresces when certain neurons are activated.
    — Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2023
  • When researchers showed pictures of cocaine to drug addicts or photographs of donuts to healthy people, the same brain regions—ranging from the ventral striatum and amygdala to the cerebellum—lit up in both groups.
    — Marta Zaraska, Scientific American, 11 Sep. 2023
  • That timeline could be of use not just to episodic memory in the hippocampus, but to working memory in the prefrontal cortex and conditioning responses in the striatum.
    — Jordana Cepelewicz, WIRED, 17 Feb. 2019
  • And in the striatum, which is important in motor control, the mitochondrial expression actually went up.
    — Elizabeth Cooney, STAT, 9 Aug. 2023
  • Stimulation to the ventral striatum has also produced the same sort of laughter and mood elevation that Bijanki saw, Sheth says.
    — Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 22 Feb. 2019
  • These faulty proteins accumulate in a deep brain structure called the striatum and cause symptoms such as uncontrollable movements, muscle spasms and cognitive decline that worsen over time.
    — Allison Parshall, Scientific American, 30 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'striatum.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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