Grow Little Cell Grow! Investigating Neurogenesis Essay -- Biology Ess

Grow Little Cell Grow! Investigating Neurogenesis Neurogenesis, the production of new nerve cells, has been a revolutionary finding as nerve formation has always been thought to end with adulthood. It has not been until recently that such dogma has been contradicted as research findings report that neurogenesis continues in the hippocampus throughout most of the adult life of mammals and primates (1). Recent correlations have been further made between neurogenesis and depression as the latter depletes neuron cells in the brain while antidepressive drugs have demonstrated to increase neuronal growth (2). Neurons are the building blocks of the nervous system as they are responsible for the input, processing and transmission of information. Neurons are derived from stem cells as the latter differentiate into specialized cells and make progenitor cells which are responsible for the formation of neuron and glial cells. Although the majority of neurons are formed during the pre-natal and perinatal stage of development, neuron formation continues in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus (2). The hippocampus, which lies beneath the cortex is a major factor of learning and memory formation and can indirectly influence emotion. Progenitor cells which are present in the sub ventricular zone of the hippocampus are responsible for such growth as they produce daughter neuron cells through division (2). In the 1960s, Joseph Altman from MIT reported that new neurons were being produced in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus of adult rat brains. Although such findings were groundbreaking, they failed to create the stir that Elizabeth Gould's 1998 study caused . The Princeton University neurobiologist demonstrated that the marmoset b... ...is is a complex issue with an array of possibilities for the future. Further investigations will have to answer some of the questions and issued raised. Sources (1)The Scientist Magazine , Human neurogenesis. Group demonstrates that adult human brains grow new cells after all. http://www.the-scientist.com/ (2)American Scientist Magazine, Depression and the Birth and Death of Brain Cells. http://www.sigmaxi.org/amsci/articles/00articles/Jacobs.html (3)National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association, Antidepressants and Brain Cell Growth. http://ndma.com/web05/web9152.htm (4) Neuroscience for Kids, New Neurons in Neocortex? New Study Says NO! http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/newneu.html (5)National Institute of Mental Health, Learning From Songbirds About Adult Brain Generation. (6) The Scientist Magazine. http://www.the-scientist.com/