Our memories guide our present and future behaviors based on our past experiences. They define who we are and how we experience the world. During learning, in a process called memory allocation, a group of active neurons are selected to serve as the cells that "hold" a specific memory. These cells will tend to be active together from that time forward, so that each time this memory is recalled, this chosen group of neurons will be reactivated. Therefore, recalling a memory depends on the reactivation of the same group of cells that were activated at the time the memory was made.
Memory disruption is relatively easy to induce in the lab, but what most of us really want, even if our memory is perfectly normal, is to make it even better. This aspiration for memory improvement has challenged scientists for many years. Most attempts to improve memory focus on strengthening the connections between neurons or boosting the formation of memories.
Is it possible that astrocytes can sense the neuronal activity around them and use this information to improve the flexibility of neuronal communication and possibly improve memory?

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