A Biophysical Model of Neuro-Glial-Vascular Interactions

Abstract

Functional neuroimaging techniques measure hemodynamic response as an indirect indicator of neuronal activity. These imaging techniques consider only forward pathway (neuron → astrocyte → vessel) and often the effect of metabolic feedback on neural activity is ignored. To understand brain’s computation, we propose a biophysical model of neuro-glial-vascular interaction forming a functional loop. This model describes key biochemical signaling pathways involved in astrocyte mediated neuro vascular coupling using a series of first order nonlinear differential equations.