Studying the Cognitive Involvement of Glia Using Stochastic Functional Microscopy

The latest brain researches are showing the relevance of glia in cognitive processes like learning and memory. One of the main problems related to this type of investigations is about complexity: there are between 10 and 40 times more glia than neurons in the central nervous system of mammalians; the other main problem is about synaptic communication: glia cells (like astrocytes and microglia) use basically a chemical information system, therefore electrophysiological tecniques are not very efficient. The recent development of PALM and STORM microscopy can be a very powerful solution to these two main problems. This strategy can be included in a broader, hypothetical discipline called cognitive gliascience.