YOU may not realise it, but your brain is home to an army of invaders. Riding in on blood vessels and nerve fibres during your first months in the womb, these amorphous creatures colonised every part of your brain, where they transformed into a strange, tentacled form, before lying still, waiting like spiders at the centres of their webs.
It sounds sinister, but these shape-shifters, known as microglia, are no cause for alarm. Rather, they are an underappreciated ally. While neurons, sparking with electrical activity, steal the limelight as the makers of thought, we now know that microglia are just as critical for a fertile, flexible mind.
As master multitaskers, microglia play many different roles. On the one hand, they are the brain's emergency workers, swarming to injuries and clearing away the debris to allow healing to begin. On the other hand, during times of rest, they are its gardeners ...
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