The new neurons cause oblivion

2014/05/16 Kortabarria Olabarria, Beñardo - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Bioteknologia
• Zoologia
• Biologia

A study with mice, mites and other rodents has concluded that when new neurons are created in the brain a process of oblivion is also initiated. “We believe that neurogenesis has a double effect on memory: when new neurons appear in the hippocampus they help to preserve new memories, but also to forget the oldest ones.” These are the words of Canadian scientist Paul Frankland. Bera is part of a research team at the Toronto Children's Hospital that has published its article in the journal Science. And, both in research and in the article, a group of the Toyoake Institute of Medical Sciences has also participated in Japan. It is, therefore, a joint investigation.

In one of the experiments carried out in the study, scientists, in a given environment, gave small electrical shocks to mice to provoke fear. Then some of the mouse were placed on the wheel, turning. And it is shown that exercising is good to create new neurons. The researchers found that the mice in which the exercise was carried out lost the fear of the area, while the mice that did not roll in the wheel did not.

On the other hand, a group of newborn mice was assigned a drug that reduces the ability to create new neurons. They showed better memory than the group that had not received any drugs.

Finally, to round the work, they experimented with other rodents that are born with adult neurons, such as guinea pigs. And they found that they have a lot of memory, but with a drug that causes the creation of neurons, they begin to have memory problems.

According to the article, the loss of memories in the creation of new neurons is absolutely necessary, since it allows memory to work more effectively.

XX. Until the second half of the twentieth century it was thought that after birth there were no neurons, but due to the separation of stem cells, nowadays it is known that neurons occur throughout the whole life. These new neurons are integrated into existing neuronal networks and participate in the processing of information. Therefore, until now, it has been considered necessary to create neurons to learn and have good memory.