Circuit-specific signaling in astrocyte-neuron networks in basal ganglia pathways

Abstract

Cell type–specific glial networks Glial cells respond to neurotransmitters when nerve cells communicate with each other. Glial cells themselves release gliotransmitters that regulate neural synaptic transmission. Martín et al. studied this reciprocal relationship in a brain region called the dorsal striatum, which has two types of experimentally identifiable neurons and two types of synapses (see the Perspective by Gittis and Brasier). Subpopulations of glial cells selectively responded to the activity of one specific type of neuron. In turn, these specifically activated glial cells signaled only to the same type of neurons but not the other, indicating that glial-nerve signaling is largely cell-type specific. Science , this issue p. 730 ; see also p. 690