The neuronal control of different behaviors involve coordinated interaction between interconnected but anatomically distributed networks of neurons in the central nervous system. The study of complex and adaptive aspects of motor behavior, such as learning, selection and sequencing of motor acts, therefore requires studies that link the microcircuit level with the systems level. During the last few years we have refined technologies that enable us to perform measurements of single cell activity in a large number of brain structures in parallel. Employing these techniques we have in particular investigated the function of the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuits in motor control under normal healthy conditions as wells as in parkinsonian animals.