The brain thrives all life long
We do not only produce new brain cells when we are kids. Scientists from the Columbia University in New York have found evidence that we produce nerve cells in the hippocampus centre of memory until we are 79 years old – and perhaps all life long.
The scientists studied the brain tissue of 28 recently deceased people aged 14-79 years and looked at their hippocampus, which controls learning and memory. In all samples, the scientists found two particular proteins: one releases stem cells when they turn into nerve cells, the other is released when new nerve cells develop. The scientists found just as many of the special proteins in the memory centres of elderly people as they did in the samples from younger people.
This means that we might resemble other mammals more than we thought, when it comes to brain development. Numerous experiments have shown that mice and rats produce many new nerve cells throughout their entire lives. If we can apply the animal experiments to humans, it opens wide perspectives such as that physical activity makes our brain cells sprout, stress restricts them, and new brain cells die very quickly, if they are not activated and stimulated.