Hippocampal neurogenesis regulates forgetting during adulthood and infancy.

Journal: Science (New York, N.Y.)

Volume: 344

Issue: 6184

Year of Publication: 2014

Affiliated Institutions:  Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, MG X, Canada.

Abstract summary 

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.

Authors & Co-authors:  Akers Katherine G KG Martinez-Canabal Alonso A Restivo Leonardo L Yiu Adelaide P AP De Cristofaro Antonietta A Hsiang Hwa-Lin Liz HL Wheeler Anne L AL Guskjolen Axel A Niibori Yosuke Y Shoji Hirotaka H Ohira Koji K Richards Blake A BA Miyakawa Tsuyoshi T Josselyn Sheena A SA Frankland Paul W PW

Study Outcome 

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Statistics
Citations : 
Authors :  15
Identifiers
Doi : 10.1126/science.1248903
SSN : 1095-9203
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Amnesia
Other Terms
Study Design
Study Approach
Country of Study
Guinea
Publication Country
United States