How neurons are born

For the first time, scientists were able to observe and control the functioning of the "newborn" neurons of a living brain

DailyTechInfo based on New Scientist: Newborn neurons observed in a live brain for first time

For quite a long time, it was believed that a person receives the entire number of neurons, brain cells, at the moment of birth, and this number gradually decreases during his life. Now scientists already know that certain areas of the brain continue to produce new neurons and the vast majority of these neurons are "born" in the hippocampus, an area that has the shape of a seahorse and which plays an important role in the basic cognitive functions of the brain. And recently, scientists from Columbia University Medical Center managed to capture for the first time the process of the birth of new neurons occurring in the living brain of an experimental animal. And further research in this direction can give people new methods of treating some neurological and mental diseases.

A picture from the press release Scientists Watch Activity of Newborn Brain Cells in Mice; Reveal they are Required for Memory; "newborn" neurons are colored red – VM.

In order to be able to observe the "newborn" neurons, scientists had to resort to several tricks. First, they implanted an implant containing a tiny microscope into the brain of an experimental animal. And secondly, they carried out gene changes in experimental animals so that all newborn neurons were able to glow at the moment of their activity.

"What we had to do is very difficult due to the fact that it required several delicate operations at once," says Michael Drew, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Austin, "The complexity of combining these methods is an explanation for why no one has been able to get images of new ones before neurons born in the brain of an adult being."

Using the functions of the implant device and gene modifications of experimental animals, scientists conducted a series of experiments in which animals were exposed to various effects of both positive and negative nature, for example, weak electric shocks. As a result, due to newborn neurons in the brain of animals, stable reactions to all these influences were formed.

After that, scientists deactivated all new neurons using optogenetics methods, as a result of which the animals were unable to distinguish between positive and negative effects. They experienced fright even from those influences to which they were accustomed and from which they had previously enjoyed.

"These observations suggest that newborn nerve cells are an important part of some functions of memory and processing information about previously acquired experiences. It is these neurons that allow animals to separate memories from each other and react to them in different ways," the scientists write.

And in conclusion, it should be noted that the results of these studies are important for understanding the nature and searching for new methods of treating certain types of diseases and disorders. After all, in the case of depression or schizophrenia, patients have a reduced rate of "birth rate" of new neurons, "and most antidepressant drugs stimulate the production of new neurons in the hippocampus," says Michael Drew, "now we can already start thinking about new methods of treating disorders, preparing the ground for new observations, research and experiments.".

Full text of the article by Danielson et al. Distinct Contribution of Adult-Born Hippocampal Granule Cells to Context Encoding (Neuron, 2016) can be read on the Columbia University – VM website.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  22.03.2016