Old brains still make neurons, study finds, offering a possible way to protect against Alzheimer’s
Reports of old brains’ decrepitude have been greatly exaggerated, scientists reported on Monday, unveiling results that contradict a much-discussed 2018 study and instead support the idea that human gray matter is capable of generating new neurons up to the ninth decade of life.
The research, published in Nature Medicine, also found that old brains from people without dementia have much higher rates of such neurogenesis than do the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, offering a new clue to a field that is desperate for new ideas.
When scientists at the University of STAT, and that the rate of neurogenesis falls off a cliff during the first year of life, they were greeted skeptically. Their conclusion contradicted 20 years of research in rodents as well as humans showing that the adult brain can give birth to new neurons in the memory-forming structure called the hippocampus. (Claims of neurogenesis in other brain regions, in contrast, have not stood up.)
