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Nurturing newborn neurons sharpens minds in mice

April 3, 2011 by

Adult mice engineered to have more newborn neurons in their brain memory hub excelled at accurately discriminating between similar experiences -- an ability that declines with normal aging and in some anxiety disorders. Boosting such neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus also produced antidepressant-like effects when combined with exercise. The study pinpointed effects of enhanced adult neurogenesis by creating mice lacking a gene required for programmed cell death of newborn neurons in the adult hippocampus.

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