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The Astrocyte as a Gatekeeper of Synaptic Information Transfer

vlad.volman{at}gmail.com School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, 69978 Tel-Aviv, Israel

Eshel Ben-Jacob

eshelbj{at}gmail.com School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, 69978 Tel-Aviv, Israel, and Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0319, U.S.A.

Herbert Levine

hlevine{at}ucsd.edu Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0319, U.S.A.

We present a simple biophysical model for the coupling between synaptic transmission and the local calcium concentration on an enveloping astrocytic domain. This interaction enables the astrocyte to modulate the information flow from presynaptic to postsynaptic cells in a manner dependent on previous activity at this and other nearby synapses. Our model suggests a novel, testable hypothesis for the spike timing statistics measured for rapidly firing cells in culture experiments.