X-Message-Number: 20330
From: "Basie" <>
Subject: Maybe memory is stored in the glia.
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 21:46:57 -0400

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"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. 




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