Rodent striatum is involved in sensory‐motor transformations and reward‐related learning. Lesion studies suggest dorsolateral striatum, dorsomedial striatum and nucleus accumbens underlie stimulus–response transformations, goal‐directed behaviour and reward expectation, respectively. In addition, prefrontal inputs likely control these functions. Here, we set out to study how reward‐driven behaviour is mediated by the coordinated activity of these structures in the intact brain. We implemented a discrimination task requiring rats to either respond or suppress responding on a lever after the presentation of auditory cues in order to obtain rewards. Single unit activity in the striatal subregions and pre‐limbic cortex was recorded using tetrode arrays. Striatal units showed strong onset responses to auditory cues paired with an opportunity to obtain reward. Cue‐onset responses in both striatum and cortex were significantly modulated by previous errors suggesting a role of these structures in maintaining appropriate motivation or action selection during ongoing behaviour. Furthermore, failure to respond to the reward‐paired tones was associated with higher pre‐trial coherence among striatal subregions and between cortex and striatum suggesting a task‐negative corticostriatal network whose activity may be suppressed to enable processing of reward‐predictive cues. Our findings highlight that coordinated activity in a distributed network including both pre‐limbic cortex and multiple striatal regions underlies reward‐related decisions. Striatal and prefrontal responses to reward‐predicting cues were modulated by prior errors consistent with a role of these regions in maintaining appropriate motivation or action selection. Further, misses were associated with higher intrastriatal and corticostriatal coherence suggesting a task‐negative corticostriatal network. The results indicate that coordinated activity in a distributed network including prefrontal cortex and multiple striatal regions underlies reward‐related decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]