Catching Astrocyte Ensembles: Astrocytic Ensembles Control Cue-motivated Behavior

Astrocytes, dynamic cells that play a crucial role in brain function, have traditionally been overshadowed by the emphasis on neuronal activity in regulating behavior. This is in part due to the lack of tools to experimentally map and manipulate specific subsets of astrocytes based on their functional activity, which hampers our understanding of how astrocyte networks contribute to the organization of behavior. Here, using a tool that can translate astrocytic activity–mediated calcium signals into gene expression in a light-dependent manner, we have identified an active astrocytic ensemble -which refers to active astrocytes working together- associated with cue-motivated behavior in the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc), a central hub in the reward system. We mapped behavior-related astrocytic ensemble activity to the ventral and posterior regions of the NAc. Furthermore, we demonstrated that direct activation of this specific astrocytic ensemble through optogenetics was sufficient to retrieve the direction of labeled reward behavior. Overall, these findings uncover the fine-tuning role of astrocytic ensembles in shaping salient behavior.