Activities
- Home
- Activities
- Release
- Adult-born neurons facilitate olfactory bulb pattern separation during task engagement.
Mar 16, 2018
Adult-born neurons facilitate olfactory bulb pattern separation during task engagement.
Most brain cells or neurons form early in life. Yet, in some parts of the brain, new neurons develop throughout adulthood, in a process called adult neurogenesis. These new neurons are incorporated into existing brain circuits and likely help the brain process information. In rodents, adult neurogenesis produces many new cells in the olfactory bulb, a part of the brain that processes smells. This is likely because the sense of smell is important for the survival of these animals.
What these adult-born neurons do and how they aid the rodent’s sense of smell is not clear. Previous studies have had conflicting results about whether these cells help animals distinguish smells and under what circumstances. More studies about how these adult-born neurons become incorporated in the brain and how they aid creatures’ sense of smell could help scientists studying brain diseases.
Imayoshi et l., with collaboration with Prof. Takaki Komiyama klab show that mice that lack adult-born neurons have a difficult time distinguishing very similar smells. In the experiments, mice were genetically engineered to suppress the formation of new neurons in adult animals. These mice lacking adult-born neurons and typical mice were trained to do tasks that require them to distinguish similar or very different scents. While the animals were completing these tasks, We used a technique called two-photon calcium imaging to see what was happening in cells in the olfactory bulb.
The experiments revealed altered neuron activity in the genetically engineered animals compared with normal ones when they were trying to distinguish similar smells. Yet there was no difference when the mice distinguished very different scents. This suggests that adult-born cells are important for mice working to distinguish scents. The mechanisms at work in the mice may be the same ones that help humans distinguish wines or perfumes. Learning more about how new cells form in adult brains could help scientists understand these processes and develop treatments for brain diseases in humans.
Li, W.L., Chu, M.W., Wu, A., Suzuki, Y., *Imayoshi,I. and *Komiyama, T. (2018) Adult-born neurons facilitate olfactory bulb pattern separation during task engagement. eLife 7, e33006.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.33006.014
