X-Message-Number: 20330 From: "Basie" <> Subject: Maybe memory is stored in the glia. Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 21:46:57 -0400 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0036_01C27626.B7414CA0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" "The communication between neurons and glial cells may be involved in brain activities that occur over a relatively long period of time, according to Fields" Certain Brain Cells Do More Than Pad Neurons Thu Oct 17, 5:35 PM ET By Merritt McKinney NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For years, scientists have basically ignored brain cells called glia, thinking that they were little more than padding for other brain cells. Now, thanks largely to new techniques that make it easier to study how glial cells communicate, scientists are reconsidering these brain cells and discovering that they seem to play a much more active role than previously thought, according to a new report. "Much is yet to be learned, but there is tremendous excitement among cellular neuroscientists who feel that they may have been overlooking nearly half of the brain," Dr. R. Douglas Fields of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland, told Reuters Health. Fields and a colleague, Dr. Beth Stevens-Graham, have written a review article on glia that is published in the October 18th issue of the journal Science. "Increasingly," Fields said, "it is becoming clear that glia contribute to information processing in the brain by detecting the firing of neurons and communicating among themselves to in turn regulate neuronal activity." According to Fields, this new awareness of the importance of glial cells has developed in large part due to new imaging methods that allow scientists to see the chemical signals that glia use to communicate, both among themselves and with neurons. Fields explained that glia and neurons operate in different ways. While the electrical signals of neurons are often likened to communication over telephone lines, glia communicate through chemical signals that are much slower, he said. Among the many functions of glia, Fields said, is to regulate the strength of connections called synapses that form between neurons. But glia are also able to detect electrical signals from other parts of the brain besides synapses, he said. These signals, Fields noted, "are particularly important in regulating glial development in fetal and early postnatal life." The messages also control the activity of glia that form myelin, the "insulation" that protects nerve fibers, he said. The communication between neurons and glial cells may be involved in brain activities that occur over a relatively long period of time, according to Fields. "This may be important," he said, "in such processes as nervous system development, the formation of synapses, migraine, depression, learning and memory." This communication could also be involved in how the brain responds to injury, disease and chronic pain, he added. SOURCE: Science 2002;298:556-562. ------=_NextPart_000_0036_01C27626.B7414CA0 Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20330