Anisette Studio

Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have revealed new information about how the cells work in the brain. They have learned that astrocyte cells play a very different role in brain’s activity than was once beleived. They now know that the connections between brain cells are rearranged during states of heightened vigilance or attention. This is a significant finding.

I would love to learn how knowing this and learning how to use this information can impact healing through therapies. Neuroscience has already proven itself to be a game changer! My hope is that we do and can heal injured brains through rewiring them! This information feels like a step closer! I feel it will impact therapy as we learn more through neuroscience. Now that I know about astrocytes, they are key to my interest, as an aid in therapeutic treatment. This means better therapeutic use to aid disabilities that involve holding one’s attention, the use of memory, and emotional disorders. This discovery has been published in Science (a science publication). I love BBC Focus Science as there are a lot of interesting topics. I am sure there is more information to be found on the internet, in books and articles, and in neuroscience articles in particular. Such findings are significant as they change our current understanding of how the brain network communicates and the activities involved.

Once we learn how the cells in the brain are stimulated, how they work, then the hope is to encourage what stimulates them. So that what triggers them becomes a useful therapeutic healing process. We know the body can heal itself. Then how can we help it do its job? Without outside unnatural factors. I would like to learn about more artists, writers, poets, and others who are more involved in projects with neuroscientists. The problem-solving nature of art, writing, music, etc, I feel is key to learning how the brain responds to such stimuli.

This particular team of neuroscientists found that a brain chemical associated with alertness, attention, and learning alters brain connectivity and function not by acting directly on neurons, which are known for their quick transmission of information. It was discovered that astrocytes, a slower-acting type of brain cell, were involved. Astrocytes had been overlooked in the field of neuroscience until recently.

The focus on neuromodulators like norepinephrine to fine-tune neurons directly is intriguing. It was believed until now that the behavior of neurons is what it’s all about! This was the focus. Thomas Papouin, PhD. D., a assistant professor of neuroscience at Washington University of Medicine, the study’s senior author, stated, “It seems that a lot of brain wiring and activity is probably orchestrated by astrocyte, on slower timescales. This discovery profoundly reshapes our understanding of how the brain works.”

How brain cells work is exciting because of how they respond to what’s happening with other cells. We respond to a stimulus, and so does the mind and body. The astrocyte cell is the new kid on the block! They dedicate themselves to tasks that need attention and respond to unexpected stimuli, especially to things that grab our attention quickly. The astrocyte cell needs to rewire itself by changing how brain cells communicate with other cells. “This process is driven by releasing chemicals known as neuromodulators, including norepinephrine, in the brain. It is interesting how the neuromodulators reorganize communication in the brain. However, it is not clearly understood; for the past 80 years, the applicable knowledge has been that neuromodulator chemicals act on neurons. Yet, for about 30 of those years, astrocytes have been shown to contact and interact with synapses, the specialized structures where neurons communicate with one another. Those studying this have concluded that astrocytes can rearrange communication between neurons, and if it does, it affects the flow of information in the brain. “Even when neurons’ ability to directly sense norepinephrine was removed, norepinephrine was still able to rearrange neuronal connections. When astrocytes’ ability to perceive or respond to norepinephrine was taken offline, on the other hand, norepinephrine was unable to reorganize neuronal connectivity.

Their findings indicate that neuromodulators such as norepinephrine rearrange neuronal connections in the brain by signaling through astrocytes rather than directly onto neurons.

The results also suggest that targeting astrocytes could effectively reshape brain activity to treat brain disorders. Papouin’s team has started looking at existing drugs that are believed to act on neurons to see if they require astrocytes to be effective. If so, perhaps astrocytes could be targeted directly for therapeutic purposes. “There are so many drugs out there that interfere with norepinephrine signaling in the brain, in particular in the treatment of ADHD or depression. Papouin wondered how many astrocytes are required to modify brain activity.

There is much more to creating art when you think about the creative process and how the mind and body are involved! We are the tool for this creative process, and we are uniquely who we are! As is the art, the writing, poetry, the music, crafts____ All that we do is unique to our personal experience from day one onward! Nothing happens without consciousness; consciousness is the beginning of all things.

Best wishes! Shibuiest, writer, poet, Pejj Nunes