The brain consists not only of neurons but also of non-neuronal cells,
including astrocytes. Recent discoveries in neuroscience suggest that
astrocytes directly regulate neuronal activity by releasing gliotransmitters
such as glutamate. In this paper, we consider a biologically plausible
mathematical model of a tripartite neuron-astrocyte network. We study the
stability of the nonlinear astrocyte dynamics, as well as its role in
regulating the firing rate of the post-synaptic neuron. We show that astrocytes
enable storing neuronal information temporarily. Motivated by recent findings
on the role of astrocytes in explaining mechanisms of working memory, we
numerically verify the utility of our analysis in showing the possibility of
two competing theories of persistent and sparse neuronal activity of working
memory.Comment: IFAC World Congress (2023