Star-shaped brain cells identified as key switch from learning plasticity to stability

Failure to properly close critical periods is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders including autism, schizophrenia, and epilepsy; neglect during plasticity windows causes lasting social dysfunction.

At the precise moment a developing brain must settle into stability, star-shaped cells called astrocytes arrive to close the window of radical flexibility — a transition researchers at the University of Oregon have now traced to specific genes also implicated in autism and schizophrenia. The discovery, made in fruit fly larvae but grounded in biology conserved across species including our own, illuminates one of the most consequential passages in human development: the moment a brain learns, in a sense, to stop learning. What goes wrong in that passage may explain some of the deepest suffering

Star-shaped brain cells identified as key switch from learning plasticity to stability

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