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The Neuroscientist
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Reviews

The Barrel Cortex as a Model to Study Dynamic Neuroglial Interaction

Christian Giaume

Inserm U840, Collège de France, Paris, France, christian.giaume{at}college-de-france.fr

Miguel Maravall

Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante UMH-CSIC, Sant Joan d'Alacant, Spain

Egbert Welker

DBCM, Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Gilles Bonvento

CEA, Institute of Biomedical Imaging (I2BM) and Molecular Imaging Research Center (MIRCen), Orsay, France

There is increasing evidence that glial cells, in particular astrocytes, interact dynamically with neurons. The well-known anatomofunctional organization of neurons in the barrel cortex offers a suitable and promising model to study such neuroglial interaction. This review summarizes and discusses recent in vitro as well as in vivo works demonstrating that astrocytes receive, integrate, and respond to neuronal signals. In addition, they are active elements of brain metabolism and exhibit a certain degree of plasticity that affects neuronal activity. Altogether these findings indicate that the barrel cortex presents glial compartments overlapping and interacting with neuronal compartments and that these properties help define barrels as functional and independent units. Finally, this review outlines how the use of the barrel cortex as a model might in the future help to address important questions related to dynamic neuroglia interaction.

Key Words: somatosensory cortex • astrocytes • glial cells • calcium signaling • brain metabolism

This version was published on August 1, 2009

The Neuroscientist, Vol. 15, No. 4, 351-366 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1073858409336092
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