Fig. 3: Cellular mechanism of oligodendroglial involvement in memory storage.
From: Oligodendroglia are emerging players in several forms of learning and memory
Encoding and storage of information in learning are influenced by oligodendroglial involvement in many aspects of action potential firing and propagation. In addition to altering conduction velocity through activity-dependent myelination and plasticity of the myelin sheath, activity-dependent effects on the axon initial segment, nodes of Ranvier, axon terminals, and interactions with perinodal astrocytes will determine action potential activation, firing frequency, refractory period, and other aspects of neuronal excitation that will participate in information encoding and storage in non-associative and associative learning. a Shows widening of the nodal gap in mature myelin to reduce conduction velocity by lifting of the paranodal loops of myelin. This mechanism of widening the nodal gap and thinning the myelin sheath is under control of the perinodal astrocytes by releasing protease inhibitors (green) to inhibit thrombin (red) cleavage of the cell adhesion molecules attaching myelin to the axon. Modified from Fields and Dutta (2019)96, with permission.
