BI 135 Elena Galea: The Stars of the Brain

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Brains are often conceived as consisting of neurons and "everything else." As Elena discusses, the "everything else," including glial cells and in particular astrocytes, have largely been ignored in neuroscience. That's partly because the fast action potentials of neurons have been assumed to underlie computations in the brain, and because technology only recently afforded closer scrutiny of astrocyte activity. Now that we can record calcium signaling in astrocytes, it's possible to relate how astrocyte signaling with each other and with neurons may complement the cognitive roles once thought the sole domain of neurons. Although the computational role of astrocytes remains unclear, it is clear that astrocytes interact with neurons and neural circuits in dynamic and interesting ways. We talk about the historical story of astrocytes, the emerging modern story, and Elena shares her views on the path forward to understand astrocyte function in cognition, disease, homeostasis, and - Elena's favorite current hypothesis - their integrative role in negative feedback control.

Elena's website.Twitter: @elenagalea1Related papersA roadmap to integrate astrocytes into Systems Neuroscience.Elena recommended this paper: Biological feedback control—Respect the loops.

0:00 - Intro
5:23 - The changing story of astrocytes
14:58 - Astrocyte research lags neuroscience
19:45 - Types of astrocytes
23:06 - Astrocytes vs neurons
26:08 - Computational roles of astrocytes
35:45 - Feedback control
43:37 - Energy efficiency
46:25 - Current technology
52:58 - Computational astroscience
1:10:57 - Do names for things matter