Figure 4. Working Model for How Attenuating Striatal Astrocyte Ca²⁺-Dependent Signaling In Vivo Altered Striatal Neural Circuit Function with Behavioral Consequences.

The cartoon summary is of the main findings at synaptic (A) and in vivo levels (B). (C) Description of the proposed sequence of events. In brief, attenuation of striatal astrocyte Ca²⁺ signals reduces Rab11a, which results in increased GAT-3 functional expression. This reduces ambient γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels in the extracellular space and tonic inhibition. The data are consistent with a model in which reduced tonic inhibition alters medium spiny neurons (MSN) firing and downstream circuits to cause excessive self-grooming. In accord, tonic inhibition and self-grooming were rescued by a GAT-3 antagonist. Reproduced from [52].