Recent neuroanatomical studies undertaken with various powerful neural tracing methods have radically changed our concept of the organization of the basal ganglia. This paper briefly reviews some of the findings that have led to the conclusion that the major components of the basal ganglia can no longer be considered as single undifferentiated entities. Instead, each of these structures is characterized by several distinct afferent and efferent chemospecific subsystems by which they can modulate and convey the multifarious information that flows through the basal ganglia. This paper focuses mainly on data obtained in primates, but also stresses the importance of comparison with non-primate species.