Activity dependency and aging in the regulation of adult neurogenesis

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

Age and activity might be considered the two antagonistic key regulators of adult neurogenesis. Adult neurogenesis decreases with age but remains present, albeit at a very low level, even in the oldest individuals. Activity, be it physical or cognitive, increases adult neurogenesis and thereby seems to counteract age effects. It is, thus, proposed that activity- dependent regulation of adult neurogenesis might contribute to some sort of “neural reserve,” the brain’s ability to compensate functional loss associated with aging or neurodegeneration. Activity can have nonspecific and specific effects on adult neurogenesis. Mechanistically, nonspecific stimuli that largely affect precursor cell stages might be related by the local microenvironment, whereas more specific, survival-promoting effects take place at later stages of neuronal development and require the synaptic integration of the new cell and its particular synaptic plasticity.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article numbera018929
Number of pages17
JournalCold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology
Volume7
Issue number11
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2015
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 26525149
ORCID /0000-0002-5304-4061/work/161408193

Keywords