Back in the days ‘immaturity’ was interpreted as dysfunctional, or low in function. But they have not considered how neurogenesis can also jeopardise memory retention.īehavioural psychologist Dr Jee Hyun Kim, Head of the Developmental Psychobiology Lab at Melbourne’s Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, said: “It has long been speculated that the ‘immaturity’ of the hippocampus may be responsible for infantile amnesia. Previous studies have examined the relationship between hippocampal neurogenesis and memory, with a focus on its importance in the consolidation of memories in adult animals. “In young animals where neurogenesis is at a high level, memory circuits are constantly changing, so this supports that certain memories are ‘pruned’ out and thus forgotten – supporting the notion of infantile amnesia.” How could you forget? “These animals are born in a ‘precocious’ way – they are basically miniature adults – able to run about independently, as opposed to mice, rats and humans who are vulnerable and dependent at birth,” she said. Psychologist Dr Amy Reichelt, from the University of New South Wales, said it was good the study used infant guinea pigs and degus. That means they have extended memory retention as infants so those animals were given drugs to artificially increase neurogenesis – which resulted in forgetting. These rodents have a shorter postnatal hippocampal neurogenesis because they are more neurologically mature at birth. The study was then moved to rodents whose infancy period distinctly differs from mice – and humans – guinea pigs and degus. In accordance with the researchers’ hypothesis, the ability of these animals to retain memories improved in comparison to their untreated counterparts. When returned to the initial environment, the adult mice who used the running wheels had largely forgotten their fear of the electric shocks, while those without the wheels maintained an association between the space and fear.įrom the group of infant mice a number were given drugs to slow the rate of neurogenesis to see if decreasing the generation of new neurons mitigated the forgetting normally observed in infant mice. Some of the adult mice were then provided access to running wheels, an activity that has been shown to boost neurogenesis. To investigate the correlation between neurogenesis and forgetting, a team from the University of Toronto conducted a series of tests on mice, guinea pigs and a type of small rodent called degus.įirst, a group of infant and adult mice were trained to fear a certain environment through the use of mild electric foot shocks. ![]() So researchers hypothesised that this increased disruption to hippocampal memories during childhood renders them inaccessible in adulthood. Neurogenesis is particularly rampant in humans during infancy but declines dramatically with age.
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