Abstract
The major focus of neuroscience research since the initial understanding of the action potential has been on investigating the mechanisms and consequences of neuronal signalling, within a single cell and through networks of interconnected neurones. The electrical impulses passing through brain circuits are the primary mechanism in the CNS that enables the intercellular communication necessary to produce complex behaviour. Evidence that, for example, changes in strength of synaptic connections are involved in memory formation, and that the dysregulation of neuronal signalling is implicated in many forms of degenerative brain disease, provided a compelling basis for the importance of this field. In contrast, glial cells were for many years thought to be important only in the metabolic, physical, and trophic support of neuronal function. However, since the late 1980s a new area of interest within neuroscience has developed, which centres on a slower form of communication and signalling involving non-neuronal cells of the central and peripheral nervous systems: glial Ca2+ waves.
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Simpson, P.B. (1998). Ca2+ Waves as a Form of Glial Excitability. In: Verkhratsky, A., Toescu, E.C. (eds) Integrative Aspects of Calcium Signalling. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1901-4_17
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