A roadmap to integrate astrocytes into Systems Neuroscience

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Astrocyte Biology
• Computational Neuroscience

Background:

• Systems neuroscience primarily focuses on neurons, overlooking astrocytes' modulatory roles in neural circuits and behavior.
• Astrocytes possess well-documented homeostatic and metabolic functions, but their computational capabilities remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify necessary studies for determining if astrocytes perform computations for brain coding and higher functions.
• To explore potential computational operations of astrocytes using calcium (Ca2+) transients as an encoding language.

Main Methods:

• Review of systems-level studies incorporating astrocytes to identify potential computational operations.
• Proposal of future research directions, including machine learning, dimensionality reduction, decoding, and astrocyte-neuronal circuit connectomics.
• Discussion of simultaneous neuronal and astrocytic population studies and advanced circuit modeling.

Main Results:

• Analysis suggests astrocytes may perform canonical computations within subsecond to second timescales.
• These computations appear relevant to sensory processing, neuromodulation, brain state, memory, fear, and homeostatic reflexes.

Conclusions:

• Clarifying astrocytic Ca2+ signaling's role in brain coding is essential for advancing astrocyte research in health and disease.
• Integrating astrocytes into advanced neural circuit models and theories like predictive coding is fundamental.