[HN Gopher] Can adults grow new brain cells?
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Can adults grow new brain cells?
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 33 points
Date : 2025-06-03 20:46 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.livescience.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.livescience.com)
| robwwilliams wrote:
| Fair overview. This is not a simple question that can be answered
| with a Yes or No. It is a quantitative question at three levels:
|
| 1. What brain regions and neuron types?
|
| 2. What is the precise gain or turn-over of numbers of neurons
| per year?
|
| 3. What rates of change per year per type per brain region?
|
| For humans we have essentially no hard data with which to address
| these three questions for structure or neuron type. Sadly this is
| also true for mouse with still shaky exception of the dentate
| gyrus and rostral migratory stream of one strain of mouse--
| C57BL/6J.
|
| I still regard Pasko Rakic's work as definitive--that in adult
| rhesus monkey females injected 4 to 6 times over several years
| with high levels of tritiated thymidine there is no evidence of
| adult neurogenesis in any brain region. Sure: proving the
| negative is a bitch, but these studies place a very low limit on
| levels of adult neurogenesis in primates--even in hippocampus.
| Meaninglessly low levels. And I have scanned this collection with
| Rakic.
|
| The end of this review is on-the-mark: There are still very good
| reasons to be enthused about the POTENTIAL of adult neurogenesis.
| Being able to induce useful levels of adult neurogenesis would be
| a game changer. But reality and potential are different beasts.
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| In what sense could adult neurogenesis be useful? Stroke
| recovery? What about for "normal" people? And as opposed to
| just brain changes from traditional neuroplasticity?
| esseph wrote:
| CTE is cumulative. It adds over time, like hearing loss.
| smolder wrote:
| Inducing regrowth of some cells could be a cure for
| parkinsons, for example.
| SubiculumCode wrote:
| I think this is probably right, dentate gyrus aside. Just
| flipping through the most recent publications, found this one:
| https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ana.27181
| mdp2021 wrote:
| On the topic of adult neurogenesis, I did find interesting Brant
| Cortright's "Neurogenesis Diet and Lifestyle".
|
| It was probably the only divulgational book about the topic
| available at the time. It did seem to contain valuable
| information.
| robwwilliams wrote:
| A+ for teaching me a new word!
| cantalopes wrote:
| Hasn't it been researched that psychadelics, namely lsd, are
| supposed to increase neuroplasticity?
| sva_ wrote:
| I think that has more to do with rewiring of existing neurons,
| rather than neurogenesis
| layer8 wrote:
| Neuroplasticity is about rewiring the nodes, not creating new
| nodes.
| esseph wrote:
| At a biological level, psilocybin induced a dose-dependent effect
| on neurogenesis, with a low dose increasing, and a high dose
| decreasing neurogenesis (62). (Again, mice)
|
| https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8461007/
| teyc wrote:
| It may also be an irrelevant question in light of connections
| research that shows circuits are more important than regions of
| cells.
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