[Verse 1] Count the neurons, then double the floor, Glia fill the gaps, there's that many and more, They don't send the sparks racing down the line, But without their patience, the circuit declines, Support and insulation, a whispering crew, Holding up the wiring so the message gets through. [Chorus] Astrocyte, Oligo, Microglia, Radial kin, Four glial crews working the brain from within, Star cells sip the glutamate, hand back glutamine, Sheath cells wrap the cable, keep the current clean, Scavengers patrol and prune, sweeping out the mess, Scaffolds let the rookies climb, nothing left to guess. [Verse 2] Picture a starburst, arms stretched everywhere, Astrocyte reaching through the neural night air, It drinks up glutamate before it floods the scene, Hands back glutamine, keeps the synapse serene, Potassium climbs when the axons spark and fire, Astrocyte's the sponge that cools the humming wire, It lines the blood-brain barrier, a bouncer at the gate, Only the right molecules get past that estate, Wrapped around the synapse, call it tripartite view, Axon, dendrite, astrocyte — a conversation of three, not two. [Chorus] Astrocyte, Oligo, Microglia, Radial kin, Four glial crews working the brain from within, Star cells sip the glutamate, hand back glutamine, Sheath cells wrap the cable, keep the current clean, Scavengers patrol and prune, sweeping out the mess, Scaffolds let the rookies climb, nothing left to guess. [Verse 3] Inside the skull and spine, oligodendrocyte reigns, Wrapping axons in myelin, insulating the lanes, One cell stretches its arms to dress several tracts, A multitasking tailor stitching nerve-line contracts, Out in the limbs, the Schwann cell takes the thread, One cell, one axon, wound segment by segment instead, Both of them boost the speed with saltatory hops, The signal skips the sheath, and the traveling never stops. [Verse 4] Microglia roam like tiny wardens on patrol, Gobbling debris and plaque, that's their steady goal, During growing years they trim the branches small, Pruning weak connections, keeping sturdy links installed, Too much snipping or too little, the wiring gets skewed, They're the immune sculptors shaping each neighborhood. [Bridge] Back when the cortex was just starting to unfold, Radial glia stretched like ladders, a scaffold to hold, Young neurons gripped the fibers, climbing strand by strand, Hunting for their address in a still-forming land, Mission accomplished, some glia shift and bend, The ladder turns to neuron once the climbing finds its end. [Chorus] Astrocyte, Oligo, Microglia, Radial kin, Four glial crews working the brain from within, Star cells sip the glutamate, hand back glutamine, Sheath cells wrap the cable, keep the current clean, Scavengers patrol and prune, sweeping out the mess, Scaffolds let the rookies climb, nothing left to guess.
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