{"id":139150,"date":"2022-05-10T21:23:28","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T02:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/researchers-find-new-function-performed-by-almost-half-of-brain-cells"},"modified":"2022-05-10T21:23:28","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T02:23:28","slug":"researchers-find-new-function-performed-by-almost-half-of-brain-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/researchers-find-new-function-performed-by-almost-half-of-brain-cells","title":{"rendered":"Researchers find new function performed by almost half of brain cells"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/researchers-find-new-function-performed-by-almost-half-of-brain-cells.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>* Astrocytes play a variety of roles with neurons, but until now, scientists did not know that these cells carry electrical impulses.<\/p>\n<p>* Applying new technology, Tufts University scientists recently discovered in mice that astrocytes are electrically active like neurons. Astrocytes play a variety of roles with neurons, but until now, scientists did not know that these cells carry electrical impulses.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fimmu.2020.01869\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"\">Neurotransmitters<\/a> are chemical messengers that facilitate the transfer of electrical signals between neurons and support the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medicalnewstoday.com\/articles\/novel-neurotransmitters-effectively-cross-the-blood-brain-barrier\" class=\"\">blood-brain barrier<\/a>. Scientists have long understood that astrocytes control these substances to support neuronal health.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This study breaks ground in showing that neurons release potassium ions, which change the astrocytes\u2019 electrical activity. This modulation affects how the astrocytes control neurotransmitters.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Until now, scientists could not image potassium activity in the brain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Astrocytes play a variety of roles with neurons, but until now, scientists did not know that these cells carry electrical impulses. * Applying new technology, Tufts University scientists recently discovered in mice that astrocytes are electrically active like neurons. Astrocytes play a variety of roles with neurons, but until now, scientists did not know [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,1495,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-health","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}