Astrocytes, a major type of glia, possess assorted structural and functional properties making them inseparable from their neighbouring neurons. However, most published computational models of whole-brain activity, if not all, remain focused on neurons while ignoring astrocytes. We herewith introduce a biophysical model built upon neural network mass and compartmental modelling techniques, where large-scale astrocytic and neuronal networks couple their activity through glutamatergic and GABAergic transmission systems. We formulate a network scheme where neural dynamics are constrained by a two-layered structural network interconnecting either astrocytic or neuronal populations, and we ask how astrocytic networks contribute to whole-brain activity and emerging functional connectivity patterns. By developing a biologically plausible simulation approach based on bifurcation and multilayer network theories, we demonstrate that astrocytic and neuronal networks engage in a dialogue over fast and slow fluctuations or over phase-based and amplitude-based network connectivity. Our study is a step forward for more thoroughly investigating the role of glia alongside neurons in health or disease conditions.
Ü Aydin, G Pellegrino, OBK Ali, C Abdallah, F Dubeau, JM Lina, E Kobayashi, C Grova (2020). Magnetoencephalography resting state connectivity patterns as indicatives of surgical outcome in epilepsy patients. J. Neural Eng. 17 035007
Cross NE, Pomares FB, Nguyen A, Perrault AA, Jegou A, Uji M, K Lee, F Razavipour, OBK Ali, U Aydin, H Benali, C Grova, TT Dang-Vu (2021) An altered balance of integrated and segregated brain activity is a marker of cognitive deficits following sleep deprivation. PLoS Biol 19(11): e3001232. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001232
OBK Ali, A Vidal, C Grova, H Benali. Glial glutamate regulation, critical determinant of whole brain physiology: a computational study. Universite d’evry, France
F Mohammadi, JP Soucy, P Rosa-Neto, TA Pascoal, OBK Ali, A Rahimabadi, M Savard, FZ Lussier, MS Kang, J Therriault, H Benali. Relationship between brain distributions of tau and atrophy to brain regional connectivity. Alzheimer's Association International Conference, 2020
Soucy, J., Razavipour, F., Ali, O., Bin, K. B., Lee, K., Blinder, S., ... & Grova, C. (2022). Multiresolution metabolic profile of functional hubness in the resting human brain. In journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism, vol. 42, no. 1_ suppl, pp. 157-158
