Are new neurons born in the adult human brain? Study revives debate
You were probably taught in high school that new neurons, or brain cells, are not born during adulthood. One study from a group at the University of California in San Francisco found that while new neurons were born in the infant hippocampus, their numbers declined sharply within the first year of life. Then they analysed them using a technique called single nuclei RNA sequencing, which provides a near-complete signature of genes that are expressed (or turned on) in each cell.This allowed the team to monitor hundreds of markers in cells simultaneously, including those specific to cells that divided regularly.
- ▪You were probably taught in high school that new neurons, or brain cells, are not born during adulthood.
- ▪One study from a group at the University of California in San Francisco found that while new neurons were born in the infant hippocampus, their numbers declined sharply within the first year of life.
- ▪Then they analysed them using a technique called single nuclei RNA sequencing, which provides a near-complete signature of genes that are expressed (or turned on) in each cell.This allowed the team to monitor hundreds of markers in cells si
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You were probably taught in high school that new neurons, or brain cells, are not born during adulthood. That it stops during your childhood. The actual picture has been more complicated: scientists have been debating among themselves for a long time as to when neurogenesis stops, although most of them believed it was possible in adulthood.A new study in Science now promises to kick this dust up all over again: it has reported evidence of neural progenitor cells and young neurons — which are the intermediate stages of cellular development — in the hippocampus, the memory centre of adult human brains.Promise and scrutiny“Historically, the brain was considered a non-regenerative organ,” Prem Tripathi, a senior scientist who studies neurogenesis at the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical…
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