Unravelling the Astrocytic Code: Investigating the Role of Astrocytes in Information Processing

A major challenge in neuroscience is uncovering the mechanisms that give rise to the brain's cognitive abilities. Cognitive functions create internal representations (meaningful signals about their external environment or internal state) and perform computations on them to drive behaviours and physiological changes. Research on cognitive functions has primarily focused on neurons. Astrocytes, once seen as passive support cells, now are known to respond to and influence neuronal activity and behaviour. They have been shown to regulate circuits responsible for cognitive functions, however, it remains unclear whether they are integral elements of, or external modulators to, cognitive circuits responsible for information storage and processing. I will leverage my multidisciplinary training and recent advances to unravel the role of astrocytes in cognitive functions and determine whether astrocytes generate distinct representations carrying specific information used in circuit computations to guide behaviour.In AstroCode, I will image astrocytic activity using state-of-the-art two-photon mini-microscopes in freely moving mice performing a behavioural task involving stimuli of opposite valence to determine the specificity of the information encoded in astrocyte activity. Then, I will explore the functional specificity of astrocytic control over neuronal activity, studying the astrocytic involvement in the generation of distinct neuronal representations and in the selection of different adaptive behaviours. Moreover, I will use an innovative strategy to determine the functional role of naturally occurring astrocyte calcium signals in cognitive functions: a closed-loop stimulus-state strategy, in which sensory stimuli are delivered based on the presence of specific patterns of astrocytic activityAstroCode aims to clearly determine the astrocyte role in information processing, providing a unique strategy to advance our understanding of the brain’s cognitive mechanisms.