Brain Awareness Week this year featured lectures by leading Czech neuroscientists and other brain scientists. It was the Czech Republic´s 18th observance, held on March 14-18, 2016 at the Czech Academy of Sciences main building. This issue of the Academic Bulletin presents an article by Dr. Alexandr Chvátal of the Institute of Experimental Medicine fo the CAS on what is known about glial cells at present. According to the general opinion, the central nervous system (CNS), whose principal purpose is the acquisition, processing and storage of information and response to external stimuli, to mainly composed of neurons that provide all of this above-mentioned functions. In fact, many glial cells are also involved in these functions. The aim of this brief overview is to correct some misconceptions about glial cells and to summarize some new insights about their role in nervous tissue functions. Many of the results were obtained by researchers from the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Czech Academy of Sciences. and Autorem je redakce uvedená zkratkou red