Brain ’s support network may play key role in attention deficit, hyperactivity behaviors

A new UCLA study suggests that brain cells called astrocytes, previously thought to provide mainly nourishment and housekeeping functions for neurons, may play a key role in the regulation of attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity.Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is estimated to affect about 7 percent  of children and adults in the U.S. Although the disorder has been the subject of much research, as well as scientific and public discussion, in recent years, the causes for the rise in ADHD are still unclear.Theresearch, published in the journal Cell, was led by Baljit Khakh, a professor of physiology and neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. A central aim of Khakh ’s lab has been to understand more about how astrocytes affect and regulate neural networks.“Unmasking how astrocytes contribute to brain function is one of the most important open questions in neuroscience,” Khakh said. “We have made some progress, but our earlier work did not tell us how increased astrocyte calcium signaling — a common method of communication used by astrocytes a nd neurons — would affect neurons and the neural circuits in which they reside. We set out to attack this problem.”Last year, his team showed that astrocytes ’ regulation of neurons in a part of the brain called the striatum influences repetitive behaviors like those seen in obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD. The new study made a chance discovery regarding how astrocyte ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news