Atomic Bomb Residue Confirms Adults Make New Brain Cells

[bananas]

Source: Medical Daily

Researchers have found that our brains make about 1,400 new neurons a day, in a new study that used leftover radiation from 1960s nuclear testing to track the lives of neurons. The new technique for dating neurons could provide insight into psychiatric disorders like depression. For decades, scientists believed that we were born with a finite number of neurons, and although we might make a few more during childhood, we had a limited and dwindling supply as adults. In the 1960s, a heated controversy began after a few scientists found evidence for the creation of new neurons — known as 'neurogenesis' — in adult rats.

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"We provide the first evidence that there is substantial neurogenesis in the human hippocampus throughout life, suggesting that the new neurons may contribute to human brain function," said senior study author Jonas Frisén of the Karolinska Institute, Sweden.

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The introduction of massive quantities of carbon-14 during the Cold War followed by its sudden decline essentially provided a timescale with which to measure the age of cells. The researchers guessed that people who lived through the Cold War should have higher amounts of carbon-14 in their cells and that the levels should decline in individuals born after 1963.

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The researchers found tremendous amounts of neurogenesis in the hippocampus, the brain's memory center, with at least one-third of the cells being renewed during a lifetime.

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"It has long been suspected that depression is related to reduced hippocampal neurogenesis," concluded Frisén. "And our findings suggest that new and more effective antidepressants could potentially be developed to target this process."

Source: Spalding KL, Bergmann O, Alkass K, et al. Dynamics of Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Adult Humans. Cell. 2013.

Read more: http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/16273/20130606/nuclear-testing-study-atomic-bomb-neuron-creation-hippocampal-neurogenesis-alzheimers-disease.htm

[bluedigger]

1. "Leftover" radiation?

What? We made more than we needed?

[bananas]

3. Nuclear Bomb Fallout Key To Proof That Adults Grow New Brain Cells

http://www.inquisitr.com/690960/nuclear-bomb-fallout-key-to-proof-that-adults-grow-new-brain-cells/

Nuclear Bomb Fallout Key To Proof That Adults Grow New Brain Cells

Posted: June 6, 2013

The fallout from nuclear bomb tests has led to a technique to prove that adults may grow new brain cells, at least in a region of the brain called the hippocampus. A study published Thursday in Cell described how researchers tracked an isotope called C-14 to confront the old claim that humans are born with all the neurons they will ever have.

The above-ground testing of nuclear bombs was banned by an international treaty in 1963. By then, over 500 tests had taken place, spilling radioactive and nonradioactive pollutants into the atmosphere, including C-14. Most humans are contaminated by at least a little of the isotope, because it is picked up by the plants we eat just as if it were regular carbon.

After the ban, the amount of C-14 in our diets has slowly declined over time. By looking at the ratio of ordinary carbon to C-14 in the hippocampus neurons of deceased people, the researchers discovered that more than one-third of those brain cells must have been renewed during the person’s lifetime.

Senior study author Jonas Frisén of the Karolinska Institute said: “We provide the first evidence that there is substantial neurogenesis in the human hippocampus throughout life, suggesting that the new neurons may contribute to human brain function.”

<snip>

[bananas]

5. All the other news articles used "nuclear fallout"

Don't know why they made up a new euphemism for it.

[bluedigger]

6. I just thought it was kind of a funny turn of phrase.

In an alarming sort of way...

[bananas]

10. Now you've got me thinking about zombies eating radioactive leftovers.

Leftover brains.

The zombie family is sitting around the dinner table,
and the mommy zombie is scooping out brains onto everybody's plate,
and the little kid zombie says, "Aw, mom, leftovers again?"

[bluedigger]

11. They're better on the second day.

Or so I've been told...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. Hear that??? It's okay to kill yer brain cells with BEER!!!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

8. Liver... not so much.

[monmouth3]

4. Swear I thought this was the Onion. All the talk about heads exploding..LOL...n/t

[tavalon]

7. So plasticity wins!

I wonder if that means that those who work out their brains, much like those who work out their bodies are likely to have more neurogenesis? I notice every time I put myself in a novel situation, I feel like I think better. Illusion, delusion or truth? Who knows.

I do know that I was born a downwinder in the summer of '63 and I often wonder what that might mean for me. But I never considered that I could be carbon dated. I guess I will have to donate my brain, hopefully after and not prior to, my death.

[DBoon]

9. Creatures with the Atom Brain!