Study Upends Widely Held Belief That Adults Can Create New Neurons, Uproar Ensues
If the UCSF researchers are right that the adult human brain does not produce any detectable new neurons in the area that’s supposedly ground zero for neuronal creation, 20 years of neuroscience textbooks have to be rewritten.
NPR:
Human Brains Unable To Add Neurons After Adolescence
A major study is challenging the widely held view that adult human brains make new neurons. The study of brain samples from 59 people of various ages found no immature neurons in anyone older than 13, scientists report online Wednesday in the journal Nature. "In all of the adult samples we looked at, we couldn't find any evidence of a young neuron," says Shawn Sorrells, the study's lead author and a senior researcher in the lab of Arturo Alvarez-Buylla at the University of California, San Francisco. (Hamilton, 3/7)
Stat:
Adult Brains Do Not Make New Neurons, Controversial New Study Claims
Neuroscientists at the University of California, San Francisco, had a hunch their findings would be controversial, as tends to happen when you challenge popular, world-changing brain research. They were right. Their study, published in Nature on Wednesday, concludes that the adult human brain does not produce any detectable new neurons in the area that’s supposedly ground zero for neuronal creation, contrary to dozens of experiments over the last 20 years. (Begley, 3/7)