Austin Perlmutter, MD

Why do certain people make it to their later years with amazing memory and, based on the most recent research up to 2 1/2 times more growth of new neurons in their memory center? Two of the signals to pay attention to our social connection and epigenetic function. While this is still hypothesis generation, these are two important themes to follow

This Bird Just Taught Us About Brain New Brain Cells. Using electron microscopy, researchers tracked the creation of new brain cells in the zebra finch brain. What they found was fascinating. As new brain cells developed, they tunneled through the brains, pushing older brain cells around. The researchers propose that this could damage existing brain circuits.

Let’s break this down. It might be tempting to feel that it would be great if we could just grow tons of new brain cells throughout the brain throughout our lives. Yet this study suggests there may be an opportunity cost. That creating new neurons could damage our existing brain circuits. This may not be an issue if you’re a bird, but as a human, there’s a chance that this could be a major issue, if it happens outside the hippocampus and at higher levels.

There’s lots more to understand about what this research means for humans, but at the least, it should remind us that the body and brain may be a whole lot more intelligent and fine tuned than we think.

Source: Songbird connectome reveals tunneling of migratory neurons in the adult striatum