Very clever work.Nuclear bomb tests carried out during the cold war have had an unexpected benefit.
A radioactive carbon isotope expelled by the blasts has been used to date the age of adult human brain cells, providing the first definitive evidence that we generate new brain cells throughout our lives. The study also provides the first model of the dynamics of the process, showing that the regeneration of neurons does not drop off with age as sharply as expected.
Saturday, June 08, 2013
Hope for my brain
Nuclear bomb tests reveal brain regeneration in humans - health - 07 June 2013 - New Scientist
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Old hat, it has long been accepted that adult humans generate new brain cells in the SVZ and DG(not the hippocampus!, the DG lies just "below it"), possibly the olfactory bulb. It has long been recognised that the success of antidepressant treatment is contingent on the re-instantiation of neurogenesis. This has been documented in MRI studies of depressives, who can lose up to 20% of their hippocampal volume but it recovers over time post depression. There is now research indicating that the rate of neurogenesis in adulthood correlates with the risk of dementia in the latter years.
Neurogenesis does drop off with age but we now know of many strategies to prevent reduce this rate of loss.
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