Adult-born hippocampal dentate granule cells undergoing maturation modulate learning and memory in the brain

By Wei Deng, M. Saxe, Iryna S. Gallina, Fred H. Gage. 2009

515 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Adult-born dentate granule cells (DGCs) contribute to learning and memory, yet it remains unknown when adult-born DGCs become involved in the cognitive processes. During neurogenesis, immature DGCs display distinctive physiological characteristics while undergoing morphological maturation before final integration into the neural circuits. The survival and activity of the adult-born DGCs can be influenced by the experience of the animal during a critical period when newborn DGCs are still immature. To assess the temporal importance of adult neurogenesis, we developed a transgenic mouse model that allowed us to transiently reduce the numbers of adult-born DGCs in a temporally regulatable manner. We found that mice with a reduced population of adult-born DGCs at the immature stage were deficient in forming robust, long-term spatial memory and displayed impaired performance in extinction tasks. These results suggest that immature DGCs that undergo maturation make important contributions to learning and memory.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Developmental Neuroscience, Neurology

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Citations in the corpus

New neurons and new memories: how does adult hippocampal neurogenesis affect learning and memory? (2010, positive): “Similar task-dependent involvement of hippocampal neurogenesis has been observed in other studies in both rats and mic”
Resolving new memories: a critical look at the dentate gyrus, adult neurogenesis, and pattern separation (2011, background): “Consistently, animals with reduced neurogenesis can perform well on short-term memory tests but not long-term memory tests in Morris water maze (Deng et al., 2009; Snyder et al., 2005).”
Modification of hippocampal circuitry by adult neurogenesis (2012, background): “…(TK) under either the GFAP or nestin promoters, followed by treatment with the antiviral pro-drug, ganciclovir, results in a 50–75% reduction in neurogenesis and impairments in long-term spatial memory and contextual fear memory acquisition and extinction (Saxe et al., 2006; Deng et al., 2009).”
Hippocampal granule cells opt for early retirement (2010, background): “The importance of adult-born granule cells to cognitive function is also supported by recent evidence that mice with reduced neurogenesis during adulthood show impaired spatial discrimination and memory (e.g., Clelland et al., 2009; Deng et al., 2009).”
Effects of adult-generated granule cells on coordinated network activity in the dentate gyrus (2010, background): “pocampal-dependent behaviors such as contextual fear conditioning (Saxe et al., 2006; Deng et al., 2009),”
The role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in brain health and disease (2018, background): “genetic ablation of proliferating progenitor cells [47, 71, 75], anti-mitotic agents [65], and focal x-irradiation [63, 66,”
Is adult neurogenesis essential for olfaction? (2011, unknown): “88 Deng, W. et al. (2009) Adult-born hippocampal dentate granule cells undergoing maturation modulate learning and memory in the brain.”
Visualization and genetic manipulation of adult neurogenesis using transgenic mice (2011, background): “Thus, in the GCV-TK models, a rescue in phenotype can be tested following recovery of the affected cell population.”
Prox1 Is Required for Granule Cell Maturation and Intermediate Progenitor Maintenance During Brain Neurogenesis (2010, background): “In mammals, neurogenesis occurs in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the DG throughout adulthood [4,5,6,7]; this activity is thought to be the basis for the acquisition of new memories [3,8,9].”
RBPJκ-Dependent Signaling Is Essential for Long-Term Maintenance of Neural Stem Cells in the Adult Hippocampus (2010, background): “…that adult hippocampal neurogenesis is important for hippocampus-dependent learning (Kee et al., 2007; Imayoshi et al., 2008; Clelland et al., 2009; Deng et al., 2009; Jessberger et al., 2009) and that impaired neurogenesis may contribute to hippocampal dysfunction observed in neuropsychiatric…”