  At tripartite synapses, astrocytes are in close contact with neurons and
contribute to various functions, from synaptic transmission, maintenance of ion
homeostasis and glutamate uptake to metabolism. However, disentangling the
precise contribution of astrocytes to those phenomena and the underlying
biochemical mechanisms is remarkably challenging. This notably results from
their highly ramified morphology, the nanoscopic size of the majority of
astrocyte processes, and the poorly understood information encoded by their
spatiotemporally diverse calcium signals. This book chapter presents selected
computational models of the involvement of astrocytes in glutamatergic
transmission. The goal of this chapter is to present representative models of
astrocyte function in conjunction with the biological questions they can
investigate.
