When sequentially activated neural words are different, they can be conceptualized as a neural sentence. Numerous complex behavioral patterns, grouped under the term ‘fixed action patterns’11 or ‘action syntax’ (Lashley, 1951), can be elicited by a relevant cue or emerge without explicit cues. A well-studied fixed action pattern in rodents is grooming, a sequence of face washing, followed by bilateral strokes and the grooming sentence concludes with a postural turn and body licking. Although the neuronal mechanisms underlying the sequential patterns of grooming are largely unknown, the dorsolateral neostriatum may be involved in generating its syntax (Berridge and Whishaw, 1992).
