AI Article Synopsis
- New neurons are consistently formed in the dentate gyrus throughout life, which can change hippocampal circuits and lead to memory degradation or forgetting.
- In adult mice, boosting neurogenesis after a memory is created can cause that memory to be forgotten, while in infants, high neurogenesis results in rapid forgetting, known as infantile amnesia.
- In precocial species like guinea pigs and degus, low levels of postnatal neurogenesis correlate with better memory retention; however, increasing neurogenesis post-memory can cause forgetting similar to infantile amnesia.
Article Abstract
Throughout life, new neurons are continuously added to the dentate gyrus. As this continuous addition remodels hippocampal circuits, computational models predict that neurogenesis leads to degradation or forgetting of established memories. Consistent with this, increasing neurogenesis after the formation of a memory was sufficient to induce forgetting in adult mice. By contrast, during infancy, when hippocampal neurogenesis levels are high and freshly generated memories tend to be rapidly forgotten (infantile amnesia), decreasing neurogenesis after memory formation mitigated forgetting. In precocial species, including guinea pigs and degus, most granule cells are generated prenatally. Consistent with reduced levels of postnatal hippocampal neurogenesis, infant guinea pigs and degus did not exhibit forgetting. However, increasing neurogenesis after memory formation induced infantile amnesia in these species.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1248903 | DOI Listing |
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