Thirty-five years ago, when Stephen Kuffler and his colleagues at Harvard initiated a new era of research on the properties and functions of neuroglial cells, very few neuro- scientists were impressed at the time with the hypothesis that neuroglial cells could have another, though more subtle, role to play in the nervous system than to provide static support to neurons. Today, very few neuroscientists are unaware of the fact that multiple interactions between neurons and glial cells have been described, and that they consti- tute the basis for understanding the function and the pathology of...

Thirty-five years ago, when Stephen Kuffler and his colleagues at Harvard initiated a new era of research on the properties and functions of neuroglial cells, very few neuro- scientists were impressed at the time with the hypothesis that neuroglial cells could have another, though more subtle, role to play in the nervous system than to provide static support to neurons. Today, very few neuroscientists are unaware of the fact that multiple interactions between neurons and glial cells have been described, and that they consti- tute the basis for understanding the function and the pathology of...