Imaging data analysis using non-negative matrix factorization.

The rapid progress of imaging devices such as two-photon microscopes has made it possible to measure the activity of thousands to tens of thousands of cells at single-cell resolution in a wide field of view (FOV) data. However, it is not possible to manually identify thousands of cells in such wide FOV data. Several research groups have developed machine learning methods for automatically detecting cells from wide FOV data. Many of the recently proposed methods using dynamic activity information rather than static morphological information are based on non-negative matrix factorization (NMF). In this review, we outline cell-detection methods related to NMF. For the purpose of raising issues on NMF cell detection, we introduce our current development of a non-NMF method that is capable of detecting about 17,000 cells in ultra-wide FOV data.

Frequency-dependent entrainment of spontaneous Ca transients in the dendritic tufts of CA1 pyramidal cells in rat hippocampal slice preparations by weak AC electric field.

Neurons in the central nervous systems are exposed to endogenous oscillating electric fields and their activities are likely to be modified by those fields. We had previously investigated the effects of AC electric field by using a newly developed method to monitor local Ca transients in the dendrites of a neuronal population in acute rat hippocampal slices and reported that spontaneously occurring Ca transients in the tufts of the apical dendrites of CA1 pyramidal neurons become entrained to subthreshold AC electric fields. To further our understanding of the impact of AC fields on dendritic activities, in the present study we examined three questions: how does the extent of entrainment depend on the frequency of the applied field, how does the mean phase of the dendritic activities during field application depend on the frequency of the field, and whether the entrainment can be seen in the absence of synaptic transmission. We have found that, the extent of entrainment is significantly greater at a low frequency band (1-4 Hz) compared to a high frequency band (8-16 Hz), 0.688 ± 0.027 at 2 Hz compared to 0.087 ± 0.016 at 16 Hz in case of 7 mV/mm field strength, that the entrainment can be observed when synaptic transmission is pharmacologically blocked, and that the mean phase of the Ca transients during field stimulation at a low frequency band (1-4 Hz) stays constant. These results indicate that the electric fields with physiologically feasible frequencies and intensities can entrain activities of the dendrites in a frequency-dependent manner independent of synaptic transmission. AC electric fields during oscillatory brain activities might play a role in synchronizing neural activities by modulating dendritic activities.

Dendritic Spikes in Sensory Perception.

What is the function of dendritic spikes? One might argue that they provide conditions for neuronal plasticity or that they are essential for neural computation. However, despite a long history of dendritic research, the physiological relevance of dendritic spikes in brain function remains unknown. This could stem from the fact that most studies on dendrites have been performed in vitro. Fortunately, the emergence of novel techniques such as improved two-photon microscopy, genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs), and optogenetic tools has provided the means for vital breakthroughs in in vivo dendritic research. These technologies enable the investigation of the functions of dendritic spikes in behaving animals, and thus, help uncover the causal relationship between dendritic spikes, and sensory information processing and synaptic plasticity. Understanding the roles of dendritic spikes in brain function would provide mechanistic insight into the relationship between the brain and the mind. In this review article, we summarize the results of studies on dendritic spikes from a historical perspective and discuss the recent advances in our understanding of the role of dendritic spikes in sensory perception.

Individual differences in sensory responses influence decision making by Drosophila melanogaster larvae on exposure to contradictory cues.

Animals make decisions on behavioral choice by evaluating internal and external signals. Individuals often make decisions in different ways, but the underlying neural mechanisms are not well understood. Here, we describe a system for observing the behavior of individual Drosophila melanogaster larvae simultaneously presented with contradictory signals, in this case attractive (yeast paste) and aversive (NaCl) signals. Olfaction was used to detect the yeast paste, whereas the ENaC/Pickpocket channel was important for NaCl detection. We found that wild-type (Canton-S) larvae fall into two decision making groups: one group decided to approach the yeast paste by overcoming the aversive signal, whereas the other group decided to forgo the yeast paste because of the aversive signal. Our findings indicate that different endogenous sensitivities to NaCl contribute to make differences between two groups and that diverse decision making steps occur in individual animals.

Organization of projection neurons and local neurons of the primary auditory center in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.

Acoustic communication between insects serves as an excellent model system for analyzing the neuronal mechanisms underlying auditory information processing. The detailed organization of auditory neural circuits in the brain has not yet been described. To understand the central auditory pathways, we used the brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model and performed a large-scale analysis of the interneurons associated with the primary auditory center. By screening expression driver strains and performing single-cell labeling of these strains, we identified 44 types of interneurons innervating the primary auditory center. Five types were local interneurons whereas the other 39 types were projection interneurons connecting the primary auditory center with other brain regions. The projection neurons comprised three frequency-selective pathways and two frequency-embracive pathways. Mapping of their connection targets revealed that five neuropils in the brain-the wedge (WED), anterior ventrolateral protocerebrum, posterior ventrolateral protocerebrum (PVLP), saddle (SAD), and gnathal ganglia (GNG)-were intensively connected with the primary auditory center. In addition, several other neuropils, including visual and olfactory centers in the brain, were directly connected to the primary auditory center. The distribution patterns of the spines and boutons of the identified neurons suggest that auditory information is sent mainly from the primary auditory center to the PVLP, WED, SAD, GNG, and thoracico-abdominal ganglia. Based on these findings, we established the first comprehensive map of secondary auditory interneurons, which indicates the downstream information flow to parallel ascending pathways, multimodal pathways, and descending pathways.

Noise-robust recognition of wide-field motion direction and the underlying neural mechanisms in Drosophila melanogaster.

Appropriate and robust behavioral control in a noisy environment is important for the survival of most organisms. Understanding such robust behavioral control has been an attractive subject in neuroscience research. Here, we investigated the processing of wide-field motion with random dot noise at both the behavioral and neuronal level in Drosophila melanogaster. We measured the head yaw optomotor response (OMR) and the activity of motion-sensitive neurons, horizontal system (HS) cells, with in vivo whole-cell patch clamp recordings at various levels of noise intensity. We found that flies had a robust sensation of motion direction under noisy conditions, while membrane potential changes of HS cells were not correlated with behavioral responses. By applying signal classification theory to the distributions of HS cell responses, however, we found that motion direction under noise can be clearly discriminated by HS cells, and that this discrimination performance was quantitatively similar to that of OMR. Furthermore, we successfully reproduced HS cell activity in response to noisy motion stimuli with a local motion detector model including a spatial filter and threshold function. This study provides evidence for the physiological basis of noise-robust behavior in a tiny insect brain.

Weak sinusoidal electric fields entrain spontaneous Ca transients in the dendritic tufts of CA1 pyramidal cells in rat hippocampal slice preparations.

Neurons might interact via electric fields and this notion has been referred to as ephaptic interaction. It has been shown that various types of ion channels are distributed along the dendrites and are capable of supporting generation of dendritic spikes. We hypothesized that generation of dendritic spikes play important roles in the ephaptic interactions either by amplifying the impact of electric fields or by providing current source to generate electric fields. To test if dendritic activities can be modulated by electric fields, we developed a method to monitor local Ca-transients in the dendrites of a neuronal population in acute rat hippocampal slices by applying spinning-disk confocal microscopy and multi-cell dye loading technique. In a condition in which the dendrites of CA1 pyramidal neurons show spontaneous Ca-transients due to added 50 µM 4-aminopyridine to the bathing medium and adjusted extracellular potassium concentration, we examined the impact of sinusoidal electric fields on the Ca-transients. We have found that spontaneously occurring fast-Ca-transients in the tufts of the apical dendrites of CA1 pyramidal neurons can be blocked by applying 1 µM tetrodotoxin, and that the timing of the transients become entrained to sub-threshold 1-4 Hz electric fields with an intensity as weak as 0.84 mV/mm applied parallel to the somato-dendritic axis of the neurons. The extent of entrainment increases with intensity below 5 mV/mm, but does not increase further over the range of 5-20 mV/mm. These results suggest that population of pyramidal cells might be able to detect electric fields with biologically relevant intensity by modulating the timing of dendritic spikes.

Downregulation of Centaurin gamma1A increases synaptic transmission at Drosophila larval neuromuscular junctions.

Adequate regulation of synaptic transmission is critical for appropriate neural circuit functioning. Although a number of molecules involved in synaptic neurotransmission have been identified, the molecular mechanisms regulating neurotransmission are not fully understood. Here, we focused on Centaurin gamma1A (CenG1A) and examined its role in synaptic transmission regulation using Drosophila larval neuromuscular junctions. CenG1A is a member of the Centaurin family, which contains Pleckstrin homology, ADP ribosylation factor GTPase-activating protein, and ankyrin repeat domains. Due to the existence of these functional domains, CenG1A is proposed to be involved in the process of synaptic release; however, no evidence for this has been found to date. In this study, we investigated the potential role for CenG1A in the process of synaptic release by performing intracellular recordings in larval muscle cells. We found that neurotransmitter release from presynaptic cells was enhanced in cenG1A mutants. This effect was also observed in larvae with reduced CenG1A function in either presynaptic or postsynaptic cells. In addition, we revealed that suppressing CenG1A function in postsynaptic muscle cells led to an increase in the probability of neurotransmitter release, whereas its suppression in presynaptic neurons led to an increase in neurotransmitter release probability and an increase in the number of synaptic vesicles. These results suggested that CenG1A functions at both presynaptic and postsynaptic sites as a negative regulator of neurotransmitter release. Our study provided evidence for a key role of CenG1A in proper synaptic transmission at neuromuscular junctions.

Detecting cells using non-negative matrix factorization on calcium imaging data.

We propose a cell detection algorithm using non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) on Ca2+ imaging data. To apply NMF to Ca2+ imaging data, we use the bleaching line of the background fluorescence intensity as an a priori background constraint to make the NMF uniquely dissociate the background component from the image data. This constraint helps us to incorporate the effect of dye-bleaching and reduce the non-uniqueness of the solution. We demonstrate that in the case of noisy data, the NMF algorithm can detect cells more accurately than Mukamel's independent component analysis algorithm, a state-of-art method. We then apply the NMF algorithm to Ca2+ imaging data recorded on the local activities of subcellular structures of multiple cells in a wide area. We show that our method can decompose rapid transient components corresponding to somas and dendrites of many neurons, and furthermore, that it can decompose slow transient components probably corresponding to glial cells.

A novel behavioral strategy, continuous biased running, during chemotaxis in Drosophila larvae.

Animals collect and integrate information from their environment, and select an appropriate strategy to elicit a behavioral response. Here, we investigate the behavioral strategy employed by Drosophila larvae during chemotaxis toward a food source functioning as an attractive odor source. In larvae, sharp turns have been identified as the main strategy during locomotion to odorant sources, but the existence of runs orienting toward the direction of higher odor concentrations has not been described. In this study, we show the existence of such a successive orientation toward an odor source, which we term as biased running. Our behavioral analysis, which examines the relationship between larval rotational velocities and larval positions relative to an attractive odor source, brings out this newly found behavioral strategy. Additionally, theoretically estimated concentration gradients of chemoattractants between left and right olfactory organs were statistically correlated with rotational velocities during biased running. Finally, computer simulations demonstrated that biased running enhances navigation accuracy. Taken together, biased running is an effective behavioral strategy during chemotaxis, and this notion may provide a new insight on how animals can efficiently approach the odor source.

Intracellular calcium elevation during plateau potentials mediated by extrasynaptic NMDA receptor activation in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons is primarily due to calcium entry through voltage-gated calcium channels.

We reported previously that plateau potentials mediated by extrasynaptic N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) can be induced either by synaptic stimulation in the presence of glutamate transporter antagonist or by iontophoresis of NMDA in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. To examine whether the plateau potentials are accompanied by an elevation of intracellular Ca2+ and to determine the source of Ca2+ elevation, we performed Ca2+ imaging during the plateau potential. Neurons were loaded with Ca2+ indicator fluo-4, and the plateau potentials were generated either synaptically in the presence of glutamate transporter antagonist or by iontophoretically applying NMDA. We have found that a transient elevation in intracellular Ca2+ accompanies the plateau potential. The synaptically induced plateau potential and the Ca2+ elevation were blocked by 5,7-dichlorokynurenic acid (5,7-dCK), an antagonist for the glycine-binding sites of NMDAR. A mixture of Cd2+ and tetrodotoxin did not block NMDA-induced plateau potentials, but completely abolished the accompanying Ca2+ elevation in both the presence and absence of Mg2+ ions in the bathing solution. The NMDA-induced plateau potential was blocked by further adding 5,7-dCK. Our results show that the NMDAR-mediated plateau potential is accompanied by elevation of intracellular Ca2+ that is primarily caused by the influx of Ca2+ through voltage-gated Ca2+ channels.

Cooperative integration and representation underlying bilateral network of fly motion-sensitive neurons.

How is binocular motion information integrated in the bilateral network of wide-field motion-sensitive neurons, called lobula plate tangential cells (LPTCs), in the visual system of flies? It is possible to construct an accurate model of this network because a complete picture of synaptic interactions has been experimentally identified. We investigated the cooperative behavior of the network of horizontal LPTCs underlying the integration of binocular motion information and the information representation in the bilateral LPTC network through numerical simulations on the network model. First, we qualitatively reproduced rotational motion-sensitive response of the H2 cell previously reported in vivo experiments and ascertained that it could be accounted for by the cooperative behavior of the bilateral network mainly via interhemispheric electrical coupling. We demonstrated that the response properties of single H1 and Hu cells, unlike H2 cells, are not influenced by motion stimuli in the contralateral visual hemi-field, but that the correlations between these cell activities are enhanced by the rotational motion stimulus. We next examined the whole population activity by performing principal component analysis (PCA) on the population activities of simulated LPTCs. We showed that the two orthogonal patterns of correlated population activities given by the first two principal components represent the rotational and translational motions, respectively, and similar to the H2 cell, rotational motion produces a stronger response in the network than does translational motion. Furthermore, we found that these population-coding properties are strongly influenced by the interhemispheric electrical coupling. Finally, to test the generality of our conclusions, we used a more simplified model and verified that the numerical results are not specific to the network model we constructed.

Selectivity and plasticity in a sound-evoked male-male interaction in Drosophila.

During courtship, many animals, including insects, birds, fish, and mammals, utilize acoustic signals to transmit information about species identity. Although auditory communication is crucial across phyla, the neuronal and physiologic processes are poorly understood. Sound-evoked chaining behavior, a display of homosexual courtship behavior in Drosophila males, has long been used as an excellent model for analyzing auditory behavior responses, outcomes of acoustic perception and higher-order brain functions. Here we developed a new method, termed ChaIN (Chain Index Numerator), in which we use a computer-based auto detection system for chaining behavior. The ChaIN system can systematically detect the chaining behavior induced by a series of modified courtship song playbacks. Two evolutionarily related Drosophila species, Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans, exhibited dramatic selective increases in chaining behavior when exposed to specific auditory cues, suggesting that auditory discrimination processes are involved in the acceleration of chaining behavior. Prolonged monotonous pulse sounds containing courtship song components also induced high intense chaining behavior. Interestingly, the chaining behavior was gradually suppressed over time when song playback continued. This behavioral change is likely to be a plastic behavior and not a simple sensory adaptation or fatigue, because the suppression was released by applying a different pulse pattern. This behavioral plasticity is not a form of habituation because different modality stimuli did not recover the behavioral suppression. Intriguingly, this plastic behavior partially depended on the cAMP signaling pathway controlled by the rutabaga adenylyl cyclase gene that is important for learning and memory. Taken together, this study demonstrates the selectivity and behavioral kinetics of the sound-induced interacting behavior of Drosophila males, and provides a basis for the systematic analysis of genes and neural circuits underlying complex acoustic behavior.

Higher-order spike triggered analysis of neural oscillators.

For the purpose of elucidating the neural coding process based on the neural excitability mechanism, researchers have recently investigated the relationship between neural dynamics and the spike triggered stimulus ensemble (STE). Ermentrout et al. analytically derived the relational equation between the phase response curve (PRC) and the spike triggered average (STA). The STA is the first cumulant of the STE. However, in order to understand the neural function as the encoder more explicitly, it is necessary to elucidate the relationship between the PRC and higher-order cumulants of the STE. In this paper, we give a general formulation to relate the PRC and the nth moment of the STE. By using this formulation, we derive a relational equation between the PRC and the spike triggered covariance (STC), which is the covariance of the STE. We show the effectiveness of the relational equation through numerical simulations and use the equation to identify the feature space of the rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons from their PRCs. Our result suggests that the hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons oscillating in the theta frequency range are commonly sensitive to inputs composed of theta and gamma frequency components.

Pitfalls in the dipolar model for the neocortical EEG sources.

For about six decades, primary current sources of the electroencephalogram (EEG) have been assumed dipolar in nature. In this study, we used electrophysiological recordings from anesthetized Wistar rats undergoing repeated whisker deflections to revise the biophysical foundations of the EEG dipolar model. In a first experiment, we performed three-dimensional recordings of extracellular potentials from a large portion of the barrel field to estimate intracortical multipolar moments generated either by single spiking neurons (i.e., pyramidal cells, PC; spiny stellate cells, SS) or by populations of them while experiencing synchronized postsynaptic potentials. As expected, backpropagating spikes along PC dendrites caused dipolar field components larger in the direction perpendicular to the cortical surface (49.7 ± 22.0 nA·mm). In agreement with the fact that SS cells have "close-field" configurations, their dipolar moment at any direction was negligible. Surprisingly, monopolar field components were detectable both at the level of single units (i.e., -11.7 ± 3.4 nA for PC) and at the mesoscopic level of mixed neuronal populations receiving extended synaptic inputs within either a cortical column (-0.44 ± 0.20 µA) or a 2.5-m(3)-voxel volume (-3.32 ± 1.20 µA). To evaluate the relationship between the macroscopically defined EEG equivalent dipole and the mesoscopic intracortical multipolar moments, we performed concurrent recordings of high-resolution skull EEG and laminar local field potentials. From this second experiment, we estimated the time-varying EEG equivalent dipole for the entire barrel field using either a multiple dipole fitting or a distributed type of EEG inverse solution. We demonstrated that mesoscopic multipolar components are altogether absorbed by any equivalent dipole in both types of inverse solutions. We conclude that the primary current sources of the EEG in the neocortex of rodents are not precisely represented by a single equivalent dipole and that the existence of monopolar components must be also considered at the mesoscopic level.

Experience-dependent plasticity of the optomotor response in Drosophila melanogaster.

Experience in early life can affect the development of the nervous system. There is now evidence that experience-dependent plasticity exists in adult insects. To uncover the molecular basis of plasticity, an invertebrate model, such as Drosophila melanogaster, is a powerful tool, as many established genetic and molecular methods can be applied. To establish a model system in which behavioral plasticity can be examined, we investigated the optomotor response, a behavior common to most sight-reliant animals, in Drosophila and found that the response could be modified by the level of light during rearing. The angle turned by the head in response to a moving stimulus was used to quantify the response. Deprivation of light increased the response to low-contrast stimuli in wild-type Drosophila at 4 days after eclosion and this plastic change did not appear in rutabaga, a known mutant defective in short-term memory. In addition, the change was transient and was markedly decreased at 6 days after eclosion. Further, we found that Dark-flies, which have been kept in constant darkness for more than 50 years, showed a higher response to low-contrast stimuli even at 6 days after eclosion compared to wild type and this characteristic was not lost in Dark-flies placed in a normal light environment for 2 generations, suggesting that this high response has a hereditary nature. Thus, our model system can be used to examine how the environment affects behaviors.

Low-frequency dielectric dispersion of brain tissue due to electrically long neurites.

The dielectric properties of brain tissue are important for understanding how neural activity is related to local field potentials and electroencephalograms. It is known that the permittivity of brain tissue exhibits strong frequency dependence (dispersion) and that the permittivity is very large in the low-frequency region. However, little is known with regard to the cause of the large permittivity in the low-frequency region. Here, we postulate that the dielectric properties of brain tissue can be partially accounted for by assuming that neurites are of sufficient length to be "electrically long." To test this idea, we consider a model in which a neurite is treated as a long, narrow body, and it is subjected to a stimulus created by electrodes situated in the region external to it. With regard to this electric stimulus, the neurite can be treated as a passive cable. Assuming adequate symmetry so that the tissue packed with multiple cables is equivalent to an isolated system consisting of a single cable and a surrounding extracellular resistive medium, we analytically calculate the extracellular potential of the tissue in response to such an externally created alternating-current electric field using a Green's function that we obtained previously. Our results show that brain tissue modeled by such a cable existing within a purely resistive extracellular medium exhibits a large effective permittivity in the low-frequency region. Moreover, we obtain results suggesting that an extremely large low-frequency permittivity can coexist with weak low-pass filter characteristics in brain tissue.

Measurement of infinitesimal phase response curves from noisy real neurons.

We sought to measure infinitesimal phase response curves (iPRCs) from rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. It is difficult to measure iPRCs from noisy neurons because of the dilemma that either the linearity or the signal-to-noise ratio of responses to external perturbations must be sacrificed. To overcome this difficulty, we used an iPRC measurement model formulated as the Langevin phase equation (LPE) to extract iPRCs in the Bayesian scheme. We then simultaneously verified the effectiveness of the measurement model and the reliability of the estimated iPRCs by demonstrating that LPEs with the estimated iPRCs could predict the stochastic behaviors of the same neurons, whose iPRCs had been measured, when they were perturbed by periodic stimulus currents. Our results suggest that the LPE is an effective model for real oscillating neurons and that many theoretical frameworks based on it may be applicable to real nerve systems.

Extracellular DC electric fields induce nonuniform membrane polarization in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons.

Non-synaptic interactions among neurons via extracellular electric fields may play functional roles in the CNS. Previously in a study using voltage-sensitive dye imaging, we reported characteristic membrane polarization profiles in the CA1 region of hippocampal slices during exposure to extracellular DC fields: slow monophasic polarization in somatic region and biphasic polarization (fast polarization and following slow repolarization) in mid-dendritic region. Here, using optical imaging and patch-clamp recordings, we showed that CA1 pyramidal neurons indeed show the characteristic polarization in response to DC fields, and investigated the mechanism underlying the profiles. Both the monophasic and biphasic polarization could be fitted with a double exponential function. The τs (ms) were 12.6±2.5 and 56.0±4.7 for the monophasic polarization, and 14.2±1.2 and 42.2±2.8 for the biphasic polarization. Based on our previous theoretical studies, we hypothesized that lower resistivity in the distal apical dendrites is responsible for generating the characteristic polarization profiles. We tested this hypothesis by removing the distal apical dendrites or by blocking ion channel-mediated conductance. Removal of distal dendrites caused drastic changes in the polarization profiles, e.g. biphasic polarization was damped. However, none of the blockers tested had a marked effect on the biphasic polarization. Our results demonstrate the importance of the apical dendrite for generating the characteristic polarization profiles, and suggest that voltage-activated conductance, including HCN channel-mediated conductance, had only minor contributions to these profiles. These findings provide a better understanding of how neurons in the CNS respond to extracellular electric fields.

Activation of the VIP/VPAC2 system induces reactive astrocytosis associated with increased expression of glutamate transporters.

Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is a pleiotropic neuropeptide that acts as a neuromodulator in the CNS. Recently, secretion of several functional molecules has been identified in VIP-stimulated astrocytes in vitro. However, the relationship between VIP and its specific receptors in neurological disorders remains unknown. To investigate the role of the VIP system under pathological conditions, we performed a cold injury on the right cerebrum of adult C57BL/6 mice and observed expression patterns for VIP and its receptor, VPAC2. Immunohistochemical studies revealed VPAC2 expression in reactive astrocytes around the core lesion by post-injury day 7, which then returned to contralateral levels at post-injury day 14. By contrast, VIP immunoreactivity was detected in activated microglial cells, suggesting that microglia-astrocyte interactions in the VIP/VPAC2 system are important for the tissue repair process. In primary cultured astrocytes stimulated with N6,2'-O-dibutyryladenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate sodium salt (dbcAMP) to mimic reactive astrocytosis, VPAC2 mRNA expression was highly up-regulated compared to that of the other VIP receptors, PAC1 and VPAC1. VPAC2 activation by the selective VPAC2 agonist, Ro25-1553, induced reactive morphological and biochemical changes from a polygonal shape to a stellate shape in cultured astrocytes. Further, Ro25-1553 increased cell surface expression of the glutamate transporters GLAST and GLT-1, which can limit excitotoxic neuronal cell death. In summary, the transient expression of VPAC2 in reactive astrocytes and the up-regulation of functional glutamate transporters suggest that the VIP/VPAC2 system induces reactive astrocytosis and plays a key role in neuroprotection against excitotoxicity in neurological disorders.