New research exposes a legend that brain cells stop growing after childhood

The old canard may have heard that new brain cells simply stop forming when we are adults. But the research today is the latest to show that this is not really true.

Scientists in Sweden led the study, Published Thursday in science. They found abundant signs of neurons that grow in the hippocampus of adult brains. Researchers say the results reveal more about the human brain with our age.

“We have found clear evidence that the human brain continues to make new neurons in adulthood.”

This is not the first paper that gets rid of the idea of ​​new neurons that stop forming in adulthood (a concept that should not be confused with general brain growth, which seems to be Reaching maturity About 30). In 2013, study researcher Jonas Fresyne and his team at the Carolinska Institute conclude This is the growth of the large neurons – also known as neuromuscular generation – is heading throughout our lives, albeit with a slight decrease when we become the elderly. But there is still some continuous discussion among scientists. In the spring of 2018, for example, two studies were different from the nervous generation published a month after exactly reverse conclusion.

The researchers were hoping to settle one aspect of human neurotransmitter in adults. If we continue to grow new neurons with our age, we must be able to detect cells that ultimately ripen to neurons, predecessors neurons, growth and division within the adult brain. To search for these cells, the team analyzed the brain tissue samples of people between 0 and 78 using relatively new advanced methods. These methods allowed them to know the properties of the brain cells on the individual level and follow the genes that are expressed by the nucleus of one cell.

Finally, the researchers examined more than 400,000 individual cell nuclei of these samples. As hope, they found these predecessors along different stages of development in adult brains, including cells about to divide. They also identified the site inside the hippocampus where the new cells seemed to arise: the elderly and an important brain area to help us form certain types of memory.

“We have seen groups of divided deeds sitting next to the fully formed neurons, in the same sites where animal studies have shown that the adult stem cells live,” said Patelli, the chief scientist in Fresin Laboratory. “In short, our work places to rest the old debate about whether the adult human brains can grow new neurons.”

The results, as often in science, enhances more questions that need an answer. We seem to have the extremes of our adult IDs have different patterns of genetic activity compared to cells in pigs, mice and other mammals with clear evidence of adult nerve formation, for example.

The researchers also found that some of the brains of some adults were full of these growing eliminations, while others had a relatively few. The authors say that these differences – which are known with previous research of the team that show that the formation of adult nerves over time – may help explain the risk of people in nervous or psychological states. Likewise, finding a safe way to improve the current adult brain ability to grow new cells can help treat these conditions or improve people’s compassion from serious head injuries.

“Although the accurate therapeutic strategies of human beings are still under search, the simple fact is that our adult brains can radically generate new neurons from the way we look at lifelong learning, recovery from injury, and the infidels capabilities of the neurological code,” Patrieli said.

There is a lot to learn about how our brains change over time. The team plans to investigate other potential hot points of nervous formation in the adult brain, such as the side ventricle wall (C -shaped cavities found in both the brain globe in the brain) and nearby areas. But we can be somewhat sure that our neurons continue to grow and replace themselves in adulthood – at least for some of us.