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“The Role of Adult Neurogenesis in Long Term Memory” Although much is known about the mechanics of adult neurogenesis, the behavioral impact of adding new neurons to the adult brain remains unclear. A prevalent functional explanation for adult neurogenesis is that new neurons provide a source of plasticity permissive for learning and forming new memories. There is substantial evidence in the mammalian hippocampus and olfactory bulb that learning results in recruitment and maintenance of new neurons (Gould et al., 1999; Mouret et al., 2008; Shors 2008). Moreover, increased neuronal recruitment enhances learning (Shors et al., 2001; Moreno et al., 2009) and suppression of new neuron incorporation results in learning deficits (Jessberger et al., 2009). Consistent with the idea of new neurons as uncommitted and plastic, it is thought that the incorporation of new neurons into existing circuits may destabilize the information (memories) contained in those assemblies. Thus there is a potentially a trade-off between providing flexibility necessary for learning while compromising the stability of long-term memories. Moreover, this liability of new neuron addition may provide an adaptive explanation for the limited regions of neuron addition in the mammalian brain. However, despite the intuitive attractiveness of a trade-off between neuron replacement and learning on the one hand and neuron retention and memory stability on the other, recent evidence from my laboratory and others has begun to suggest that this simple dichotomy may not be accurate (e.g. Deng et al., 2009). In the proposed work, we are using the songbird model system to test the idea that new neurons are necessary to update established memories and that neuron replacement of aging neurons maintains, rather than degrades, long term memories. Carolyn Pytte, Ph.D.
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