We will begin by highlighting a subset of the many cellular functions of astrocytes, focusing specifically on those functions that have the most relevance to neurodegeneration (Figure 1). Other ...

A collaborative French–Swiss study reveals a previously unknown role for astrocytes in the brain's information processing. Published in the journal Cell, the research shows that these glial cells are ...

Recent work has revealed some of the many crucial functions of astrocytes, brain cells that were once thought to play primarily supportive roles for neurons. Astrocytes do handle debris around neurons ...

The social behavior of animals has been the key focus of extensive neuroscience and biomedical studies, as it is often aligned with behaviors observed in humans. Better understanding these behaviors ...

Epilepsy, where patients suffer from unexpected seizures, affects roughly 1% of the population. These seizures often involve repetitive and excessive neuronal firing, with the trigger behind this ...

Astrocytes are found throughout the brain. Each astrocyte is in contact with several neurons and more than 100'000 synapses. A new study shows that, at the microscopic level, dozens of synapses from ...

The potential effects of astrocyte dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases are summarized in Figure 2. AD is characterized clinically by cognitive loss in two or more domains, including memory, ...