Neurophysiologists have discovered that the formation of new neurons is crucial for the storage of verbal information and the formation of memories of dialogues with other people, while observing the workings of the brain in temporal lobe epilepsy sufferers. The press office of the University of Southern California (USC) Medical School reported.
We have obtained the first cellular evidence that neurogenesis plays an important role in the functioning of human consciousness and memory. Specifically, in this case we have linked the process of new nerve cell formation to verbal memory and verbal learning. This opens the way for the development of approaches aimed at stimulating these cognitive abilities by enhancing neurogenesis,’ said USC Associate Professor Michael Bonaguidi, whose words are quoted by the USC press service.
The scientists came to this conclusion while observing the brain function and cognitive abilities of four dozen volunteers who suffered from so-called mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, one of the most common variations of this form of seizures. People with this condition often experience dramatic memory and cognitive impairments decades after they are diagnosed with the disease, the causes of which were previously unknown to scientists.
Scientists have found that seizures often occur in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory centre, where new neurons are actively formed throughout a person’s life. This observation has led scientists to suggest that epileptic seizures may, over time, slow and stop neurogenesis, the formation of new nerve cells, which can lead to problems with memory and mental clarity.
Guided by this idea, biologists studied cognitive ability and memory in volunteers at different stages of epilepsy and then compared these data with how active neurogenesis was in slices of hippocampus extracted from the brains of patients during operations to eliminate foci of epilepsy. The scientists’ analysis showed that both the cognitive abilities of volunteers and neurogenesis sharply deteriorated about two decades after diagnosis.
Such a relationship, the scientists found, was particularly characteristic of verbal memory and the volunteers’ ability to remember information they had heard, while visual memory, language skills, colour recognition, reading text and numbers were less affected. This suggests a critical role for neurogenesis in the hippocampus and its ability to store and process verbal information, the researchers concluded.