This was explained by researchers from the Universities of Pisa, L’Aquila, Glasgow and the Irccs Neuromed of Pozzilli (Isernia). “The function of this process, known as neurogenesis, appears to be important for cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation and resilience to stress,” the experts said. The research opens up new perspectives related to the treatment of certain psychiatric conditions, including depression
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The formation of new neurons in some brain areas, such as the hippocampus, also occurs in adulthood. And physical activity, sleep, and some medications like antidepressants, stimulate the process. This is what the researchers of the Universities of Pisa, L’Aquila, Glasgow and Irccs Neuromed of Pozzilli, in the province of Isernia achieved, in a study published in the scientific journal “Current Neuropharmacology”.
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The importance of the study
deepening
The key mechanism of super memory discovered
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The importance of the study, the researchers underline in a press release appeared on the web portal of the University of Pisa, is also linked to the opening towards new perspectives related to the treatment of some psychiatric pathologies, including depression, with the possibility of coordinating pharmacological therapies and therapies that do not involve medicines. “The function of this process, known as neurogenesis, seems important to the cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation and resilience to stress ”, commented Marco Scarselli, professor of pharmacology at the Tuscan university. “Some drugs, such as antidepressants, stimulate this process and this mechanism is largely responsible for their clinical efficacy,” added the expert. But that’s not all, because “even alternative non-pharmacological approaches such as physical activity and restful sleep, induce neurogenesis, with important consequences in clinical practice “, explained Scarselli.
Adult neurogenesis
The phenomenon of “adult neurogenesis” has also been the focus of other research works, which as regards the University of Pisa was conducted at the Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery by a team of experts composed also by Marco Carli, Stefano Aringhieri, Biancamaria Longoni, Giovanna Grenno and Francesco Fornai. For example, it was also the NICO team (Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi) of the University of Turin. The group, led by Luca Bonfanti and Paolo Peretto, was engaged in studying the formation of new neurons in the adult brain, precisely what is meant by “adult neurogenesis”. “For years our studies have been aimed at clarifying the morphological, molecular and functional characteristics of the brain stem niches that make this phenomenon possible. One of the elective models is represented by a zone of the ventricles cerebral from which the new neurons migrate to the olfactory areas, where they integrate into circuits involved in learning ”, explained the researchers. It is a phenomenon, as mentioned, considered “a hope for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases that are currently incurable”. Often, experts argue, it is thought that in humans new neurons are few and are present especially in the youthful stages of life, therefore difficult to use for repair purposes. For this reason, a series of research has been conducted to study a type of adult neurogenesis that occurs in the brain parenchyma, “that is, in the parts of nervous tissue located outside the stem cell niches. This parenchymal genesis is an alternative source of new cells that could be manipulated for reparative purposes ”. And the advantage of these cells lies in the fact that they do not depend on narrow stem cell niches “but are widely spread in the same brain areas that may be affected by neurodegenerative events”, such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson, the NICO researchers explained again.
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