Memory area of brain stops growth in teens

New neurons stop growing in a key region of the brain’s “memory centre” as early as adolescence, according to a controversial study.

Scientists looking at brain tissue samples found no evidence of new nerve cell growth in the dentate gyryus, a part of the hippocampus vital to memory formation, after the age of 13.

The discovery contradicts previous findings suggesting that hippocampal neurons replenish themselves throughout adulthood, as they do in many other mammals.

The newly found pattern seems to be a hallmark of big complex brains.

New hippocampus neuron development also dwindled over time in macaque monkeys, the scientists found. And hippocampus regeneration was thought to be lacking in big-brained dolphins, porpoises and whales, US authors wrote in the journal Nature.