Speaker
Description
Recent experimental evidence suggests an active roles of astrocytes in a number of brain functions and demonstrates coordinated neuronal and astrocytic activity in vivo [1]. In the cortex, astrocytes form non-overlapping domains, each containing several hundreds of neurons and ~100,000 synapses [2]. Astrocytic processes are in close contact with synaptic terminals and affect synaptic transmission, plasticity, and neuronal excitability [3, 4]. Understanding the role of astrocytic mechanisms in brain functions and dysfunctions requires open-access tools for model implementation, simulation, and analysis. In the past decade, hundreds of new models with some form of neuron-astrocyte interaction dynamics have been proposed. However, their implementation is rarely shared and not sufficiently documented to reproduce the findings [4, 5]. We developed a new module in the NEST simulator that allows efficient implementation and simulation of large neuron-astrocyte populations. This includes an astrocyte model with internal calcium dynamics, a synapse model to communicate between astrocytes and postsynaptic neurons, and user-friendly and efficient high-level connectivity functions, which allow probabilistic or deterministic pairing of neurons and astrocytes. This new module will improve the convenience, reliability, and reproducibility of computational studies involving neuron-astrocyte interactions.
Acknowledgements
This work has been supported as a Partnering Project (AstroNeuronNets) to the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under the Specific Grant Agreement No. 945539 (Human Brain Project SGA3). The work has also been supported by the Academy of Finland (decision Nos. 326494, 326495, 345280, and 318879).
References
[1] Lines J et al. (2020) Astrocytes modulate sensory-evoked neuronal network activity. Nat Commun. 11:3689. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17536-3.
[2] Zisis E et al (2021) Digital reconstruction of the neuro-glia-vascular architecture. Cereb. Cortex, 2021; 00:1-18
[3] Bazargani N and Attwell D. (2016) Astrocyte calcium signaling: the third wave. Nat. Neurosci. 19(2):182-9. doi: 10.1038/nn.4201
[4] Linne M-L et al. (2022) Neuron–Glia Interactions and Brain Circuits. In: Giugliano, M., Negrello, M., Linaro, D. (eds) Computational Modelling of the Brain. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1359. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89439-9_4
[5] Manninen T et al. (2018) Front. Neuroinf. 12:20. doi.org/10.3389/fninf.2018.00020
| Preferred form of presentation | Poster & advertising flash talk |
|---|---|
| Topic area | models and applications |
| Speaker time zone | UTC+2 |
| I agree to the copyright and license terms | Yes |
| I agree to the declaration of honor | Yes |
