Here is an important reason to stay in touch with friends and family: social isolation causes memory and learning deficits and other behavioral changes. Many brain studies have focused on the effects ...

For more than a century, the story of the brain has been told as a tale of neurons, with every thought and memory traced to their electrical chatter. That narrative is now being rewritten as evidence ...

To enjoy the scent of morning coffee and freshly baked cookies or to perceive the warning smell of something burning, the brain needs two types of cells, neurons and astrocytes, to work closely with ...

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 ...

When astrocyte function is disrupted, neurons in the brain's motor cortex struggle to execute and refine motion, a new study in mice shows. From steering a car to swinging a tennis racket, we learn to ...

Astrocytes are specialized glial cells ubiquitously distributed throughout the spinal cord and brain. They occupy approximately 50% of the total volume of the central nervous system (CNS) and are ...

To enjoy the scent of morning coffee and freshly baked cookies or to perceive the warning smell of something burning, the brain needs two types of cells, neurons and astrocytes, to work closely with ...

In a recent study published in Nature, researchers investigated whether glutamatergic gliotransmission was mediated by specialized astrocytes in the central nervous system. Study: Specialized ...

Researchers have uncovered novel aspects of astrocyte function in olfactory, or smell, perception revealing changes in their gene expression patterns that turn these brain cells into a hub of ...

From steering a car to swinging a tennis racket, we learn to execute all kinds of skilled movements during our lives. You might think this learning is only implemented by neurons, but a new study by ...