Adult Neurogenesis

Before we can discuss the plasticity of  your brain we need to discuss what allows it to change -- to rewire. Neurons are the deal. For years it was felt that we were born with all the neurons we will ever have. Neurogenesis (the birth of neurons) does not happen in adults so as we age -- they just keep dying off.

Now we know that is not true. It was first discovered in the the adult brains of primates by Elizabeth Gould at Princeton and then others including work at Fred Cage's lab at the Salk Institute established this realty for -- the human adult.

In fact new brain cells are born in three sections of the brain: the hippocampus - the seat of learning and memory, the olfactory bulb above the eye which transmits smell information to the brain and engages higher brain areas in arousal and attention and in the caudate nucleus which is also involved in learning and memory, particularly regarding feedback processing which is located above the hippocampus.

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5 of  7

The 100 Year Myth

Although all the factors responsible for the birth and growth of new neurons are not yet known, some are pretty well established. There is not much doubt that exercise and an enriched environment will promote an increase in the propagation, strengthening and the survival of neurons. Conversely chronic stress, sleep deprivation, depression and sedentary aging will often result in their decline.

We will be discussing some of these growth factors later, however, the first the first thing we have to do is to destroy this old myth. This myth that adult neurogenesis is not possible.

The Society for Neuroscience states and I quote

"For more than a century, medical science firmly believed that our brain

could not repair itself and that we were born with all the brain cells we would ever have."

                      

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