Are new neurons created in the adult brain?
For a long time, everyone thought the answer was "no". Then, about 15 years ago, we learned that neurogenesis does occur in the adult brain, but it was thought to be limited to two very small regions, the dentate gyrus and the sub-ventricular zone. Except in cases of injury, when adult neurogenesis had been reported elsewhere.
Now Guo et al look set to overturn this orthodoxy in a new Journal of Neuroscience paper, as they found ongoing neurogenesis in healthy adult brains in an area called the piriform cortex, part of the cerebral cortex.
The key to the discovery was oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs). OPCs were previously believed to only be able to turn into cells called oligodendrocytes, which are not neurons, but glia; glia are a kind of support crew for the brain.
But Guo et al show convincingly (with the ...
