title: Quantifying the behavioural relevance of hippocampal neurogenesis.
abstract: Few studies that examine the neurogenesis-behaviour relationship formally establish covariation between neurogenesis and behaviour or rule out competing explanations. The behavioural relevance of neurogenesis might therefore be overestimated if other mechanisms account for some, or even all, of the experimental effects. A systematic review of the literature was conducted and the data reanalysed using causal mediation analysis, which can estimate the behavioural contribution of new hippocampal neurons separately from other mechanisms that might be operating. Results from eleven eligible individual studies were then combined in a meta-analysis to increase precision (representing data from 215 animals) and showed that neurogenesis made a negligible contribution to behaviour (standarised effect  = 0.15; 95% CI  = -0.04 to 0.34; p = 0.128); other mechanisms accounted for the majority of experimental effects (standardised effect  = 1.06; 95% CI  = 0.74 to 1.38; p = 1.7×10-11).
authors.affiliation: In Silico Lead Discovery, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stanley E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Lazic
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fuss
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gass
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D000818:Animals; D003071:Cognition; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D055495:Neurogenesis