2012年11月25日 訊 /生物谷BIOON/ --一項發(fā)表在11月11日的Nature Neuroscience雜志上的研究證實，成年海馬中新生成的新生神經元對記憶提取至關重要。新生神經元在大腦中的功能作用是有爭議的，這項新研究結果支持了大腦產生的新神經元可能是正常學習和記憶過程的關鍵這一理論。
以前的研究已經證明,，新生神經元與成人現有的大腦中的神經元會組成連接。為了幫助確定新生神經元的作用，研究人員通過光基因技術(optogenetic technique),，控制海馬中的新生神經元，測試它們的功能,。
研究結果強有力的證實了新的神經細胞是恐懼記憶和空間定位記憶體很重要,。在研究中,，科學家使用了光電逆轉錄病毒，對成年小鼠的大腦新生神經元功能和回路進行了深入的探討,。研究結果還將有助于診斷和治療成人大腦老化,，老年癡呆癥和阿爾茨海默氏病等。（生物谷：Bioon.com）
doi:10.1038/nn.3260
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Optical controlling reveals time-dependent roles for adult-born dentate granule cells.
Yan Gu, Maithe Arruda-Carvalho, Jia Wang, Stephen R Janoschka, Sheena A Josselyn, Paul W Frankland, Shaoyu Ge.
Accumulating evidence suggests that global depletion of adult hippocampal neurogenesis influences its function and that the timing of the depletion affects the deficits. However, the behavioral roles of adult-born neurons during their establishment of projections to CA3 pyramidal neurons remain largely unknown. We used a combination of retroviral and optogenetic approaches to birth date and reversibly control a group of adult-born neurons in adult mice. Adult-born neurons formed functional synapses on CA3 pyramidal neurons as early as 2 weeks after birth, and this projection to the CA3 area became stable by 4 weeks in age. Newborn neurons at this age were more plastic than neurons at other stages. Notably, we found that reversibly silencing this cohort of ~4-week-old cells after training, but not cells of other ages, substantially disrupted retrieval of hippocampal memory. Our results identify a restricted time window for adult-born neurons essential in hippocampal memory retrieval.
