The power of our brain to form unexampled cells , connexion , and memories is an ability often consigned to the early days . We ’ve discover thenumbers : presently after birth , our head turn back around 86 billion neuron , roughly a poop as many cells as there are stars in the Milky Way .
But can the golden years also be a prime time of maturation for new neurons ? Yes , agree to a recent cogitation write inCell Stem Cell . Healthy quondam adults can produce just as many new brain cells as younger hoi polloi maturate 14 years and older . This is in austere contrast to astudypublished last calendar month that claim otherwise .
For the current study , researchers from Columbia University autopsied the trice - frozen genius of 28 healthy men and women aged 14 to 79 years . They specifically studied the dentate convolution of the hippocampus – the so - called memory hub of the brain , although it ’s likely regard in other tasks as well .
" We find that older people have like ability to make thousands of hippocampal novel neuron from progenitor cells as younger people do , " lead generator Maura Boldrini , associate degree professor of neurobiology , said in astatement . " We also found tantamount book of the genus Hippocampus across ages . ”
However , this ability does not seem to hold rightful for bloodline vas growth , which decreases with age . They also happen few protein markers that point the ability of the brain to form new connections and few progenitor cell , those with the power to go on to become a specific fair game cell . The squad suggests that diminished noesis in former old age may therefore have more to do with these ingredient than brain cell organization ( neurogenesis ) .
Neurogenesis is presently prevalent with debate . Last month inNature , a team from UC San Franciscofoundthat the hippocampus does not organise novel brain cells . A 2013studyfound that around 700 neurons in the hippocampus are made each day in grownup brain .
This latest work adds to the evidence that adults can indeed form fresh cell in the nous . So why the difference between this squad ’s result and last month ’s ? Boldrini suggests it may have to do with the conservation method of the encephalon .
The recent team immediately freeze the donated brain and salt away them at -80 ° C ( -112 ° F ) . Last month ’s study used samples from hospitals in China , Spain , and the US and were treated with dissimilar chemicals from each other .
“ In Arturo ’s newspaper , he used Einstein tissue paper fixed in dissimilar agency , and compare results between them , attributing the findings to aging , " Boldrini tell IFLScience .
Also , " long post - mortem interval between the meter of decease and when the tissue was take can seriously affect the calibre of the proteins and resultant role . " The UCSF work also only had access to slices of the hippocampus , while her team had the entirety .
These differences do not delegitimize the previous team ’s findings , but rather provides an impulsion for further research .
Mercedes Paredes , atomic number 27 - author of the UCSF paper , tell IFLScience : " While the new sketch by Boldrini et al . tender interesting evidence of go down blood vas growth in the grownup hippocampus , we gainsay the reading of their cellular staining experiments as evidence of new neurons in the grownup brain .
" In our own recent study we made similar watching to what Boldrini et al . report , but after perform extensive additional depth psychology of the shape and appearance of the cells in inquiry , include electron microscopy and factor expression , we make up one’s mind that these cell were not in fact vernal neurons or neuronal progenitors but dissimilar types of cells on the whole . "
Others say the recentfindingsare strait . It seems the battle of the brains continues to simmer .
A half - gash of the squiggly mound of tissue paper within our skull . Yuttapol Phetkong / Shutterstock
