Princeton University scientists say they have refuted one of the oldest beliefs about the brain – that its cells don’t regenerate.
The researchers say the brain constantly produces new cells for the neocortex, its learning and memory center. The finding could lead to new ways to treat strokes or Alzheimer’s disease.
In studies using macaque monkeys, the scientists traced the path of cells that migrated to the neocortex. Once the cells arrived in the neocortex, they become a new part of the brain’s central circuitry, head researcher Elizabeth Gould said.
“This shows that there is a naturally regenerative mechanism” in the brain, she said.
Her study appears today in the journal Science.
Gould’s team injected monkeys with a compound that cells take up as they make new cells.
Just hours later, the cells in one area of the brain were observed taking up the compound, proving they were dividing and making immature brain cells.
A week later the new cells had migrated, matured and plugged themselves into the neocortex.
Gould said it is unknown if Alzheimer’s or other disorders are tied to a failure or a decline of this regeneration process.