Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Assaying Circuit Specific Regulation of Adult Hippocampal Neural Precursor Cells
Published on: July 24, 2019
Adult neurogenesis: basic concepts of signaling
1Department of Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8082, USA. angelique.bordey@yale.edu
Abstract:
Findings over the past decades demonstrating persistent neurogenesis in the adult brain have challenged the view of a fixed circuitry in normally functioning brain and raised hopes for self-renewal following brain injury. In addition to providing insights for repair, studying adult neurogenesis may improve our understanding of embryonic development assuming that fundamental mechanisms are similar. It is argued here, using examples of cell:cell communication, that parallels can be drawn between adult and embryonic neurogenesis. Paradoxically, cell:cell communication in neurogenic regions resembles that in a mature neuroglial network. This suggests that differences in the integrative properties of cells and the extracellular matrix molecules may constitute a neurogenic environment or "niche". While reasons for persistent adult neurogenesis in humans remains obscure, recent findings regarding the environmental and activity-driven control of neurogenesis reinforce the original concept of a role for neurogenesis in motor memory formation and refinement of information processing.
Related Concept Videos
Neurogenesis and Regeneration of Nervous Tissue
Synaptic Signaling
Most synapses are chemical, meaning an electrical impulse or action potential spurs the release of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. The neuron sending the signal is called the presynaptic neuron, and the neuron receiving the signal is the postsynaptic neuron.
The presynaptic neuron fires an action potential that...
Synaptic Signaling
Overview of Cell Signaling
Cells respond to many types of information, often through receptor proteins positioned on the membrane. For example, skin cells respond to and transmit touch...
Notch Signaling Pathway
The Notch gene came into the limelight in 1914 after the discovery that its mutation in Drosophila melanogaster leads to a serrated (or "notched") wing margin phenotype. It was not until 1985...
Diversity in Cell Signaling Responses
Graded and Abrupt Responses
Some signaling systems generate...

