Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have upended decades-old dogma of how connections between brain cells are rearranged during states of heightened vigilance or attention. The team found that a brain chemical associated with alertness, attention and learning alters brain connectivity and function not by acting directly on neurons, the cells known for their quick transmission of information, but through the work of astrocytes, another, slower-acting type of brain cell that is often overlooked in the field of neuroscience.
The discovery, published in Science May 15, fundamentally changes current understanding about the determinants of brain network communication and activity. It also calls for greater focus on astrocytes as therapeutic targets in the treatment of attention, memory and emotional disorders.
“Textbooks tell us that neuromodulators like norepinephrine fine-tune neurons directly — in fact, textbooks tell us that everything in the brain is about neurons,” said Thomas Papouin, PhD, an assistant professor of neuroscience at WashU Medicine and the senior author of the study. “It seems that a lot of brain wiring and activity is probably orchestrated by astrocytes, on slower timescales. This is the type of discovery that profoundly reshapes our understanding of how the brain works.”