Brains cells born together wire and fire together for life
According to a recent study, brain cells with the same "birthdate" are more likely to connect into cooperative signaling circuits that perform a variety of tasks, including memory storage. The new study on the growing brains of mice led by scientists from NYU Grossman School of Medicine discovered that brain cells (neurons) with the same birthdate displayed distinctive connectivity and activity throughout the animals' adult lives, whether they were asleep or awake. The results, which were published online on August 22 in Nature Neuroscience, imply that evolution used the organized birth of neurons — by gestational day — to create specialized microcircuits in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory formation. The researchers hypothesize that the brain may make use of the neuronal layers' gradual development to generate neural templates, or "Lego parts," that connect each new event to an old template as it is remembered. According to the ...