A niche for adult neurogenesis in social behavior.
The structural and functional changes occurring into the brain is the hallmark of its tremendous capacity for dealing with the complexity that we are facing throughout life. It is also the hallmark of what neuroscientists refer as neuroplasticity. The continuous generation of cohorts of new neurons in some discrete regions of the adult brain, including the olfactory system, is a newly recognized form of neuroplasticity that has been recently the focus of neuroscience studies. Several lines of evidence indicate that this recruitment of newly-generated neurons is extremely sensitive to the overall neuronal activity of the host circuits. Therefore, adult neurogenesis represents, not only a constitutive replacement mechanism for lost neurons, but also a process supporting a capacity of neural plasticity in response to specific experience throughout life. The remarkable complexity of the social life offers a host of daily challenges that require a diversity of brain mechanism to make sense of the ever-changing social world. This review describes some recent findings which have begun to define reciprocal relationships between the production and integration of newborn neurons in the adult brain and social behavior. These studies demonstrate how this domain of research has the potential to address issues in the functional contribution of adult neurogenesis in the expression of some social traits as well in the role of some social contexts to finely regulate the production, survival and integration of adult newborn neurons.
Gheusi
Gilles
G
Laboratory for Perception and Memory, Pasteur Institut, Unité de Recherche Associée, CNRS 2182, Paris, France. ggheusi@pasteur.fr
Ortega-Perez
Inmaculada
I
Murray
Kerren
K
Lledo
Pierre-Marie
PM
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D052586:Mating Preference, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D010675:Pheromones / Q000502:physiology; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D012919:Social Behavior
D010675:Pheromones