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Contribution of astrocytic glutamate and GABA uptake to corticostriatal information processing
Author(s) -
Goubard Valérie,
Fino Elodie,
Venance Laurent
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the journal of physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.802
H-Index - 240
eISSN - 1469-7793
pISSN - 0022-3751
DOI - 10.1113/jphysiol.2010.203125
Subject(s) - neuroscience , medium spiny neuron , glutamate receptor , basal ganglia , striatum , cerebral cortex , biology , dopamine , chemistry , central nervous system , biochemistry , receptor
Non‐technical summary The striatum is a part of the basal ganglia that receives input from the cerebral cortex, extracts relevant information from background noise and relays that information to other parts of the basal ganglia. It is largely composed of nerve cells known as medium‐sized spiny neurons (MSNs), and neurons from the cerebral cortex make synaptic connections with them. This study investigates the function of astrocytes at this synaptic connection, where their role is to remove the neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA that spills out from the synaptic cleft. It appears that astrocytes, via the uptake of neurotransmitters, increase the strength of filtering operated by MSNs.