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Non-neuronal brain cells modulate behaviour

A single gene in astrocytes can constrain repetitive behaviours, indicating that these cells are regulators of behavioural disruption in conditions such as Huntington’s disease and obsessive–compulsive disorder.
  1. Anna Kruyer

    1. Anna Kruyer is in the Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, and at the Center for Addiction Research, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229, USA.

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Neurons have long been considered the brain cells chiefly responsible for behaviour, but this longstanding perspective overlooks an important cell type — the astrocyte. Writing in Nature, Ollivier et al.1 report that a subpopulation of brain astrocytes can control repetitive behaviors. The authors’ findings make a compelling argument for considering astrocytes as a crucial regulator of behavioural disruption in various cognitive and psychiatric disorders.

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Nature 627, 279-280 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00425-w

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 06 March 2024: An earlier version of this News & Views article erroneously stated that obsessive–compulsive disorder is inversely correlated with disease severity. In fact, it is expression of Crym that is inversely correlated with severity.

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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