They use electrical impulses and chemical signals to transmit information between different areas of the brain, and between the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Glia outnumber neurons in some parts of the brain, but neurons are the key players in the brain. The central nervous system (which includes the brain and spinal cord) is made up of two basic types of cells: neurons (1) and glia (4) & (6). But others think the evidence offers intriguing possibilities about the role of adult-generated neurons in learning and memory. Other scientists believed these findings could not apply to mammals, but Elizabeth Gould later found evidence of newborn neurons in a distinct area of the brain in monkeys, and Fred Gage and Peter Eriksson showed that the adult human brain produced new neurons in a similar area.įor some neuroscientists, neurogenesis in the adult brain is still an unproven theory. If birds made new neurons to help them remember and learn, Nottebohm thought the brains of mammals might too. These new neurons made learning possible. Why did these bird brains add neurons at such a critical time in learning? Nottebohm believed it was because fresh neurons helped store new song patterns within the neural circuits of the forebrain, the area of the brain that controls complex behaviors. This was the same time in which the birds had to learn new songs to attract females.
In a series of experiments, Fernando Nottebohm and his research team showed that the numbers of neurons in the forebrains of male canaries dramatically increased during the mating season. But in the early 1980s, a scientist trying to understand how birds learn to sing suggested that neuroscientists look again at neurogenesis in the adult brain and begin to see how it might make sense. These discoveries about neurogenesis in the adult brain were surprising to other researchers who didn’t think they could be true in humans. In 1979, another scientist, Michael Kaplan, confirmed Altman’s findings in the rat brain, and in 1983 he found neural precursor cells in the forebrain of an adult monkey. He later reported that newborn neurons migrated from their birthplace in the hippocampus to other parts of the brain. In 1962, scientist Joseph Altman challenged this belief when he saw evidence of neurogenesis (the birth of neurons) in a region of the adult rat brain called the hippocampus. But scientists believed that once a neural circuit was in place, adding any new neurons would disrupt the flow of information and disable the brain’s communication system. As children we might produce some new neurons to help build the pathways - called neural circuits - that act as information highways between different areas of the brain. Until recently, most neuroscientists thought we were born with all the neurons we were ever going to have.