Halassa Michael M, Dal Maschio Marco, Beltramo Riccardo, Haydon Philip G, Benfenati Fabio, Fellin Tommaso
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
ScientificWorldJournal. 2010 Aug 17;10:1634-45. doi: 10.1100/tsw.2010.130.
Although astrocytes are increasingly recognized as important modulators of neuronal excitability and information transfer at the synapse, whether these cells regulate neuronal network activity has only recently started to be investigated. In this article, we highlight the role of astrocytes in the modulation of circuit function with particular focus on sleep-related rhythmogenesis. We discuss recent data showing that these glial cells regulate slow oscillations, a specific thalamocortical activity that characterizes non-REM sleep, and sleep-associated behaviors. Based on these findings, we predict that our understanding of the genesis and tuning of thalamocortical rhythms will necessarily go through an integrated view of brain circuits in which non-neuronal cells can play important neuromodulatory roles.
尽管星形胶质细胞越来越被认为是神经元兴奋性和突触信息传递的重要调节因子，但这些细胞是否调节神经元网络活动直到最近才开始被研究。在本文中，我们重点介绍星形胶质细胞在调节电路功能中的作用，特别关注与睡眠相关的节律发生。我们讨论了最近的数据，这些数据表明这些神经胶质细胞调节慢振荡，这是一种表征非快速眼动睡眠的特定丘脑皮质活动，以及与睡眠相关的行为。基于这些发现，我们预测，我们对丘脑皮质节律的产生和调节的理解必然会通过对脑电路的综合观点来实现，在这种观点中，非神经元细胞可以发挥重要的神经调节作用。
