Humans Produce New Brain Cells Throughout Their Lives, Say Researchers (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Humans continue to produce new neurons in a part of their brain involved in learning, memory and emotion throughout adulthood, scientists have revealed, countering previous theories that production stopped after adolescence. The findings could help in developing treatments for neurological conditions such as dementia. Many new neurons are produced in the hippocampus in babies, but it has been a matter of hot debate whether this continues into adulthood -- and if so, whether this rate drops with age as seen in mice and nonhuman primates. Although some research had found new neurons in the hippocampus of older humans, a recent study scotched the idea, claiming that new neurons in the hippocampus were at undetectable levels by our late teens.

Comments

Oh man, that's a relief

[Anonymous Coward]

The recent article saying that we get no new neurons was causing me stress, which of course was killing my neurons, and thinking about that was causing me MORE stress.

But now, a new article, with a much better claim!

I feel the stress draining away, as new brain cells are born to replace the ones I lost last week.

Nice

[nospam007]

So at age 72 we'll all be stable geniuses.