The Star Cells of Memory—Astrocytes

AGES: 12–13 Everything we do (sense, move, feel, remember...) relies on the activity of neurons in the brain, the connections between them and their ability to change the strength of these connections. Astrocytes are a di erent type of brain cells previously thought to merely support the activity of neurons. Advanced tools allow us to artificially activate specific cells populations in specific brain areas. Using such tools, we found that astrocytes can independently strengthen the connections between neurons and improve memory. We show that this memory improvement is due to the ability of astrocytes to enhance only the activity of those neurons participating in learning. Our findings suggest that astrocytes are not merely support cells enabling memory, but they can actively change the function of neurons. The ability of astrocytes to enhance memory may serve as a basis for future treatments to improve normalmemory or help people who su er from memory loss.