Older Adults Do Grow Brain Cells, Scientists Find
Scientists have shown for the first time that adults grow new brain cells, even in their 60s and 70s.
Up to now, it was generally believed that once you lost brain cells as an adult, they were gone forever. The finding raises a distant hope for treating brain diseases or damage by getting the brain to fix its broken circuitry.
The new neurons, or nerve cells that form circuits, were found in just one small part of the brain: the hippocampus, a deep-brain structure that’s important for learning and memory. It’s not yet clear whether the new brain cells actually function or what they do.
Still, the discovery contradicts the traditional wisdom that adult human brains do not make new neurons, even though that ability had been identified in rat brains about 30 years ago.
“It’s not providing an answer or a cure at this point in time for any particular disorder, but it’s a very exciting discovery,” said Dr. Ira Black, head of neuroscience and cell biology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, N.J.
The big question is whether scientists can find ways to make new brain cells appear in the right places to overcome damage from strokes, brain injuries and such diseases as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Right now, for example, the new neurons are in the wrong place to replace brain cells lost to heavy drinking.
The new finding is reported in the November issue of the journal Nature Medicine by Fred Gage of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla and Peter Eriksson and colleagues at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden.
