Hippocampal astrocytes encode reward location.

Astrocytic calcium dynamics has been implicated in the encoding of sensory information, and modulation of calcium in astrocytes has been shown to affect behaviour. However, longitudinal investigation of the real-time calcium activity of astrocytes in the hippocampus of awake mice is lacking. Here we used two-photon microscopy to chronically image CA1 astrocytes as mice ran in familiar or new virtual environments to obtain water rewards.