Goal-Directed and Habitual Behaviors

Abstract

Abstract Driving a car, handwriting, and riding a bicycle are examples of the many human actions that have been established as instrumental through two fundamental behavioral selection mechanisms: the goal-directed system and the habitual system. There are segregated loops connecting brain region coding and involved in each of these behavioral domains. The brain regions involved in both kinds of behavior have been highly conserved from an evolutionary point of view. Habitual behavior has been retained across evolution and, in the case of certain adaptive responses, almost without alteration among species. This chapter reviews classical and recent studies that highlight the main mechanisms and brain networks supporting goal-directed and habitual behaviors across species, with a focus on evolutionary perspectives on important biological hierarchies. Finally, it raises the possibility that dopaminergic dysfunction in certain brain diseases (such as addiction and Parkinson’s disease) is associated with a pathological involvement of these critical behavioral control systems.