2026/05/25 by Airi Watanabe, Connie Guo, P. Jesper Sjöström · 1 voice
Neuroscience · #Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research #Neural dynamics and brain function #Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
paper · doi:10.1177/10738584261445371
Learning and memory were long thought to be the domains of neurons and neural networks, but recent work across brain systems has established that astrocytes play a role in synaptic plasticity and information storage. However, it remains unclear what this role is. In Hebbian and spike timing-dependent plasticity, simultaneous activation of pre- and postsynaptic neurons on a millisecond timescale determines plasticity, yet emerging evidence suggests that slow astrocyte signaling over many seconds is directly linked to memory. Here we take an astrocyte-centric view on plasticity to explore the possible computational and coding roles of astrocytes. We propose that in a 3-body arrangement with pre- and postsynaptic compartments, astrocytes may participate in the synaptic credit assignment problem. This review thus offers a candidate conceptual framework for understanding the interplay between astrocytes and neurons in the context of neural network performance and plasticity.