Put them out to pasture? What are old granule cells good for, anyway...?
In this issue, Alme and colleagues propose a novel hypothesis that young adult-born neurons represent the functional population of the dentate gyrus, and that old granule cells "retire" from relevance. Here, we present several implications of this interesting theory for the function of both neurogenesis and the dentate gyrus.
Aimone
James B
JB
Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92037, USA. aimone@salk.edu
Deng
Wei
W
Gage
Fred H
FH
D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D018891:Dentate Gyrus / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*