The activity and interconnectivity of neurons, a key type of brain cell, are crucial to the brain's ability to compute and process information. However, recent studies suggest that astrocytes, a different type of brain cell, may also play an important role. This project combines experiments and computational modeling to study how astrocytes contribute to brain function. Astrocytes affect many aspects of neuronal activity and communication, providing a potential mechanism by which they can alter signaling in the brain. The computational modeling and mathematical analysis within the project will enable a deeper biological understanding of these astrocyte-neuron interactions, generate new ideas for why they may be important for information processing in the brain, and suggest ways to integrate these principles into artificial intelligence systems. In conjunction with the modeling will be experiments to observe and manipulate astrocytes in living brains. In so doing, the project will validate new ideas about astrocytes' roles in the brain, providing an enhanced understanding of neural circuits and brain function. The scientific premise of this project is the "contextual guidance" hypothesis, which postulates that astrocytes act as switchboards that transmit information about the environment and the physiological state of the organism to neurons and networks thereof. As such, astrocytes may act as a force multiplier that can expand the repertoire of dynamics that neurons can