subgranules - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Bird brain (Score 2, Insightful) 117

by subgranules on Wednesday September 16, 2009 @01:55AM (#29436497) Attached to: Birdsong Studies Lead To a Revolution In Biology

So nobody read TFA? It is from 2002. Research since then has shown that the mouse, rat and human hippocampus (specifically the dentate gyrus, the region that if destroyed produces antereograde amnesia, like in Memento) can grow new cells that replace old ones. This also happens in the olfactory bulb - a region that helps us tell the difference between similar odors.

Birdsong Studies Lead To a Revolution In Biology 117

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 15, 2009 @08:45PM from the growing-a-new-one dept.

Smithsonian.com covers research that began with the study of birdsong and ended by overturning the common belief that adult animals can't produce new brain cells. "Deconstructing birdsong may seem an unlikely way to shake up biology. But [Fernando] Nottebohm's research has shattered the belief that a brain gets its quota of nerve cells shortly after birth and stands by helplessly as one by one they die — a 'fact' drummed into every schoolkid's skull. [Nottebohm] demonstrated two decades ago that the brain of a male songbird grows fresh nerve cells in the fall to replace those that die off in summer. The findings were shocking, and scientists voiced skepticism that the adult human brain had the same knack for regeneration. ... Yet, inspired by Nottebohm's work, researchers went on to find that other adult animals — including human beings — are indeed capable of producing new brain cells. And in February, scientists reported for the first time that brand-new nerves in adult mouse brains appeared to conduct impulses — a finding that addressed lingering concerns that newly formed adult neurons might not function."

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