Oligodendroglia-lineage cells in brain plasticity, homeostasis and psychiatric disorders

•Oligodendroglia-lineage cells are involved in adult CNS physiology.•Developmental myelination is activity-dependent and experience-dependent in the cerebral cortex.•Role of oligodendroglia-lineage cells in CNS homeostasis.•Contribution of oligodendroglia-lineage cells in neuropsychiatric disorders. Adult oligodendrocyte progenitor cells are uniformly distributed in both gray and white matter, displaying robust proliferative and migratory potential during health and disease. Recently, developments in new experimental approaches have brought about several novel insights about NG2-glia and myelinating oligodendrocytes, indicating a diverse toolkit of functions in experience-dependent myelination and homeostasis in the adult CNS. In this review, we summarize some of the topical studies that highlight newly emerging findings implicating oligodendroglia-lineage cells in brain plasticity, homeostasis and pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders.