title: Paradoxical influence of hippocampal neurogenesis on working memory.
abstract: To explore the function of adult hippocampal neurogenesis, we ablated cell proliferation by using two independent and complementary methods: (i) a focal hippocampal irradiation and (ii) an inducible and reversible genetic elimination of neural progenitor cells. Previous studies using these methods found a weakening of contextual fear conditioning but no change in spatial reference memory, suggesting a supportive role for neurogenesis in some, but not all, hippocampal-dependent memory tasks. In the present study, we examined hippocampal-dependent and -independent working memory using different radial maze tasks. Surprisingly, ablating neurogenesis caused an improvement of hippocampal-dependent working memory when repetitive information was presented in a single day. These findings suggest that adult-born cells in the dentate gyrus have different, and in some cases, opposite roles in distinct types of memory.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neurobiology and Behavior and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Saxe
authors.forename: Gaël
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Malleret
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vronskaya
authors.forename: Indira
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mendez
authors.forename: A Denise
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: Michael V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Sofroniew
authors.forename: Eric R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Kandel
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D008568:Memory; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000473:pathology; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D019076:Transgenes