title: Do stars govern our actions? Astrocyte involvement in rodent behavior.
abstract: Astrocytes have emerged as important partners of neurons in information processing. Important progress has been made in the past two decades in understanding the role of astrocytes in the generation of neuron-astrocyte network outputs resulting in behavior. We review evidence for astrocyte involvement across four different behavioral domains: cognition, emotion, motor, and sensory processing. Accumulating evidence from animal models has provided a wealth of data that largely supports a direct involvement of astrocytes on diverse aspects of behavior. The development of tools for selectively controlling the temporal and spatial properties of astrocyte activity will help to consolidate our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying this involvement.
authors: Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal; ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal. Electronic address: joaooliveira@ecsaude.uminho.pt.
authors: João Filipe
authors: JF
authors: Oliveira
authors: Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal; ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal.
authors: Vanessa Morais
authors: VM
authors: Sardinha
authors: Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal; ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal.
authors: Sónia
authors: S
authors: Guerra-Gomes
authors: Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
authors: Alfonso
authors: A
authors: Araque
authors: Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal; ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal.
authors: Nuno
authors: N
authors: Sousa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D012377:Rodentia
keywords: astrocyte; behavior; cognition; emotion; motor; sensorial