Puberty: learning saves brain cells

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MunichThose who are young build up brain cells quickly - but they also disappear again just as quickly. Unless you strain your memory. American researchers came to this conclusion in an experiment with young rats.

Trained rats

The animals were trained on a sound signal. Whenever they heard this, they had to walk a certain distance. A control group received no memory training. In this newly developed brain cells disappeared after just three weeks. In the trained animals, on the other hand, almost all of the newly formed nerve cells remained alive during this period.

Puberty is crucial

“So nerve cells are not produced through learning, but memory training keeps brain cells that are already there alive,” explains study director Tracey Shores from Rutgers University in New Jersey. The way in which new cells are produced in the brain is similar in humans to that in rats. The results of their study are therefore likely to be transferable to humans. Shores concludes: "How much young people learn during puberty could have an impact on how well their brain functions in adulthood." (Ab)

Source: “Learning Early in Life May Help Keep Brain Cells Alive”, press release, Rutgers University, May 26, 2014

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