• computational neuroscience
• glial cells
• astrocytes
• neuron-astrocyte network
• scale-free connectivity
• complexity analysis
• avalanche
• power-law distributions
• Brian2 simulations

The role of astrocytes has been usually neglected in complexity studies, both the-
oretical and experimental. These studies are fundamental in understanding the
self-organizing development of neural systems. Contrary to what was believed until
a few years ago, it is nowadays believed that astrocyte dynamics could play a non-
secondary role. So far, modelling studies on more complete neural systems, e.g.,
including glial cells, is still in its pioneering stage. In this framework, theoretical
studies on the complexity of more composite neural systems are only just beginning
and it is foreseeable that the application of complexity paradigms may become a
cutting-edge field in biological systems research and, in particular, in the rapidly
increasing research on brain organoids. In light of this, in the present thesis, start-
ing from the model proposed by Stimberg and co-workers, we build a network of
neurons which incorporates also astrocytes in order to investigate both the effects
of synaptic activity on glial cells, and the influence of astrocyte dynamics on neu-
rons. The resulting network signals are then analysed with a view to studying the
mechanisms triggering the emergence of self-organizing behaviors.