Grant: Operating Grant

Conventional wisdom suggests that the electrical and chemical signals relayed from one nerve cell to another are the essence of every breath, every movement, every thought. Nerve cells, however, cannot perform these functions in isolation and new findings now suggest that glial cells are active participants in this ongoing dialogue in the brain. Classically relegated to secondary status as 'helper' cells, glia are now front and centre in theories suggesting they are essential facilitators that allow nerve cells to communicate more effectively and may even be pivotal in helping the brain learn and remember.Definitive evidence to support these theories, however, has been sparse and not without significant challenge. We will examine closely glial-neuron interactions in an effort to understand how this partnership facilitates the processing of multiple chemical signals in the brain. In particular, we will focus on how glia can process different signals through independent, but parallel mechanisms. Our experiments seek to proved the first unambiguous demonstration that this parallel processing of information ensure neural networks function effectively and are able to learn and remember physiologically salient information.