Topic: neuromodulator landscape

Astrocytes are key supporters of brain functioning that are well documented to influence neural circuits over slow and prolonged timescales. Astrocytes in striatum regulate the extracellular neuromodulator landscape that governs dopamine transmission. We explored whether striatal astrocytes might act dynamically within striatal circuits to govern dopamine function. Surprisingly, we show that striatal astrocytes rapidly modulate dopamine release on a subsecond timescale. Brief optogenetic depolarisation of striatal astrocytes in mouse ex vivo brain slices strongly and reversibly modulated dopam