Physical Electronics Dept.

You are invited to attend a lecture

By

Maurizio De Pittà

Ph.D. candidate under the supervision of Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob and Prof. Yael Hanein

Information Processing and Memory in Astrocyte-Modulated Synapses

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in astrocytes, the main type of glial cells in the brain. Supported by experimental evidence is the possibility that astrocytes perform genuine information processing by means of their calcium signaling and are players in synaptic transmission, but the functional implications of this scenario remain elusive. Understanding is challenged by the complexity of the signaling network that underlies astrocyte-synapse interactions whereby conventional approaches to describe synaptic function may be unsuitable to explain the experimental observations when astrocytic feedback signaling is taken into account. In an attempt to tackle such complexity, I will focus on the key experimental observation that astrocytes could regulate synaptic release of neurotransmitter to introduce a formal framework to address the role of astrocyte signaling in artificial neuronal network models, developing in particular theoretical arguments on the role of astrocytes in synaptic plasticity. Extending these arguments from single synapse to network level leads to important predictions on the possible function of astrocytes in memory tasks and neural activity underlying higher brain functions.