The findings, they say, could help in the hunt for ways to treat conditions ranging from Alzheimer’s to psychiatric problems. Does your brain produce new cells? “Those daughter cells are the ones that exponentially divide and make many more cells and differentiate towards becoming a neuron.”The team found levels of these “mother cells” dropped with age in the front and middle region of the dentate gyrus. However, there was a drop in the front of the dentate gyrus in the number of cells producing substances linked to neuroplasticity – the ability for the brain to change or “rewire”. “For now, we do not think this new study challenges what we have concluded from our own recently published observations: if neurogenesis continues in the adult human hippocampus, it is an extremely rare phenomenon,” she said.

Source: The Guardian April 05, 2018 16:00 UTC