1583–1591, 1990.
Mauch, D.H., K. Nagler, S. Schumacher, C. Goritz, E.C. Muller, A. Otto, and F.W. Pfrieger. “CNS Synaptogenesis Promoted by Glia-Derived Cholesterol.”
Science
, 294: 1354–1357, 2001.
Nedergaard, M. “Direct Signaling from Astrocytes to Neurons in Cultures of Mammalian Brain Cells.”
Science
, 263: 1768–1771, 1994.
Parpura, V., T.A. Basarsky, F. Liu, K. Jeftinija, S. Jeftinija, and P.G. Haydon. “Glutamate-Mediated Astrocyte-Neuron Signaling.”
Nature
, 369: 745–747, 1994.
Verkhratsky, A. and A. Butt.
Glial Neurobiology
. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley, 2007.
Volterra, A., P. Magistretti, and P. Haydon,
The Tripartite Synapse: Glia in Synaptic Transmission
. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
7
Developing relationships
Imagine the earth slips through a rift in space and time and comes out the other end into a completely different universe. Imagine this experience coincides with all the blueberry bushes in the world growing 1,000 percent more blueberries. However, the blueberries look different; they have sprouted arms stretching over and around the bush and they are controlling the branches. Then the blueberry bushes get up, walk around, and talk, creating blueberry bush societies. Now, imagine you are a botanist who specializes in blueberry bushes and you want to kill one to find out how the blueberry bushes suddenly became so smart. Where would you study first—the branches or the numerous odd-shaped blueberries that suddenly grew and are now reaching around and controlling all the branches?
Before we are born, a neuronal framework like the branches of the blueberry bush is established. Then astrocyte growth snowballs at birth. Unfortunately, neuronal studies have dominated.
We can gather some evidence from neuronal-focused research into how astrocytes grow and develop in the womb at birth and early childhood. With neuronal tendrils sinewing out of the grey glial goo, transmitting rapid signals at the beck of our pondering, contemplating and understanding astrocytes, the pre- and post-natal development of the primate brain are established when we are born. Neurons are used by beings to acquire rapid information about their environment through their limited senses. Only with our regulatory muscle—our astrocytes—can we reach beyond our limitations by considering the sensory information. Only through our glia can we reach a higher understanding of our existence.
The cortex is where higher thought is processed in our astrocytes. Although most research has been neuronally focused, in the last 30–40 years, a better understanding of the nature of our cortical development has been taking shape. One of the first scientists to tackle the method of cortical development was none other than our old friend Cajal. Cajal speculated as to the nature of connectivity in the cortex while, as usual, assuming the neuron held the greatest importance.
When the brain develops before birth, cells called radial glial stretch out from the ventricular fluid. The ventricles sit inside our brain like a pond in spring and summer. All growth and activity surrounds the pond. Like the growth of tadpoles becoming frogs, ventricular pools of fluid influence cell division. Cells divide next to the pools and expand out to form the brain in an inside-out manner. Cells dividing from radial glia can become any cell type in the brain. Neurons are formed first and set down like the streets of a housing development.
Much of our wealth of knowledge into brain cell development comes from Pasko Rakic and his wife Patricia Goldman (1937–2003), both developmental neurobiologists at Yale University. Rakic started his career in the former Yugoslavia in the Soviet eastern bloc. Injecting monkeys with radioactive material in the 1960s, Rakic was able to follow cell morphology and lineage in the primate brain during development.
Prenatally, radial glial cells extend long distances from the center of the brain to the
Mauch, D.H., K. Nagler, S. Schumacher, C. Goritz, E.C. Muller, A. Otto, and F.W. Pfrieger. “CNS Synaptogenesis Promoted by Glia-Derived Cholesterol.”
Science
, 294: 1354–1357, 2001.
Nedergaard, M. “Direct Signaling from Astrocytes to Neurons in Cultures of Mammalian Brain Cells.”
Science
, 263: 1768–1771, 1994.
Parpura, V., T.A. Basarsky, F. Liu, K. Jeftinija, S. Jeftinija, and P.G. Haydon. “Glutamate-Mediated Astrocyte-Neuron Signaling.”
Nature
, 369: 745–747, 1994.
Verkhratsky, A. and A. Butt.
Glial Neurobiology
. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley, 2007.
Volterra, A., P. Magistretti, and P. Haydon,
The Tripartite Synapse: Glia in Synaptic Transmission
. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
7
Developing relationships
Imagine the earth slips through a rift in space and time and comes out the other end into a completely different universe. Imagine this experience coincides with all the blueberry bushes in the world growing 1,000 percent more blueberries. However, the blueberries look different; they have sprouted arms stretching over and around the bush and they are controlling the branches. Then the blueberry bushes get up, walk around, and talk, creating blueberry bush societies. Now, imagine you are a botanist who specializes in blueberry bushes and you want to kill one to find out how the blueberry bushes suddenly became so smart. Where would you study first—the branches or the numerous odd-shaped blueberries that suddenly grew and are now reaching around and controlling all the branches?
Before we are born, a neuronal framework like the branches of the blueberry bush is established. Then astrocyte growth snowballs at birth. Unfortunately, neuronal studies have dominated.
We can gather some evidence from neuronal-focused research into how astrocytes grow and develop in the womb at birth and early childhood. With neuronal tendrils sinewing out of the grey glial goo, transmitting rapid signals at the beck of our pondering, contemplating and understanding astrocytes, the pre- and post-natal development of the primate brain are established when we are born. Neurons are used by beings to acquire rapid information about their environment through their limited senses. Only with our regulatory muscle—our astrocytes—can we reach beyond our limitations by considering the sensory information. Only through our glia can we reach a higher understanding of our existence.
The cortex is where higher thought is processed in our astrocytes. Although most research has been neuronally focused, in the last 30–40 years, a better understanding of the nature of our cortical development has been taking shape. One of the first scientists to tackle the method of cortical development was none other than our old friend Cajal. Cajal speculated as to the nature of connectivity in the cortex while, as usual, assuming the neuron held the greatest importance.
When the brain develops before birth, cells called radial glial stretch out from the ventricular fluid. The ventricles sit inside our brain like a pond in spring and summer. All growth and activity surrounds the pond. Like the growth of tadpoles becoming frogs, ventricular pools of fluid influence cell division. Cells divide next to the pools and expand out to form the brain in an inside-out manner. Cells dividing from radial glia can become any cell type in the brain. Neurons are formed first and set down like the streets of a housing development.
Much of our wealth of knowledge into brain cell development comes from Pasko Rakic and his wife Patricia Goldman (1937–2003), both developmental neurobiologists at Yale University. Rakic started his career in the former Yugoslavia in the Soviet eastern bloc. Injecting monkeys with radioactive material in the 1960s, Rakic was able to follow cell morphology and lineage in the primate brain during development.
Prenatally, radial glial cells extend long distances from the center of the brain to the
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