The Possible Role of Glial Cells in Processing Non-Automatic Responses
Abstract
Taking inspiration from recent findings about properties and role of the glial cells in variously modulating the activity of the nervous system – especially the CNS –, I sketch an ideal system formed by two structures that result functionally interconnected. On a first level, there is a wired network the operation of which should resemble that of a neural network, while on a second level an autonomous network – with structural and functional features similar to the ones of the presynaptic glial cells of the CNS – spreads over the former and, in determinate conditions, leads its functioning according to a global systemic need for internal activation equilibrium that can be somehow assimilated to homeostasis. So, what I want to highlight, although in a very simplified way for now, is that these networks cooperate with different roles and mechanisms in the constant pursuit of the integrity of the system as a whole and that, over the time, they are mutually subject to structural enhancements and functional reinforcements making them evolutionary entities in all respects.
My purpose is hence to outline the basic functioning of an ideal system that reacts to external and internal stimuli affecting it by activating its response networks in such a way that the activation state of the latter within certain physiological parameters (equilibrium state or cenesthesia) denotes the free-disturbance condition that can be pursued and achieved exactly through more or less complex activation patterns and the final effects resulting from them. In my perspective, such a system should formally represent what neurons and glial cells do – each according to their own functional properties – whenever some environmental or internal disturbance affects it by triggering a first reaction in terms of network activation beyond a certain equilibrium level and thus forcing it to organize responses, within the networks themselves, to return to an equilibrium state.