We've known for at least a decade that astrocytes and other glia play important roles in synaptic transmission and learning, not just axon insulation and blood-

We've known for at least a decade that astrocytes and other glia play important roles in synaptic transmission and learning, not just axon insulation and blood-brain-barrier related stuff. It's still unclear what most of their contributions are. They're harder to interrogate because they're not as electrically active as neurons, and though they do exhibit Calcium waves, they're small and seem to be localized to small compartments. There's a number of people out there working on glia in a functional sense, like Atwell at UCL and Magistretti (though he's retired now i think).