Essays on Neurogenesis

Health-Related News Story

The accuracy and credibility of health-related news article is of significance as incorrect information can be misleading to patients and the general population. This paper will trace the origin of a health-related story and evaluate its accuracy and representativeness of its contents in relation its source article. The health-related story selected for the article was published in the New York Times on 17th February 2016. It is authored by Reynolds and is entitled “Which type of exercise is the best for the brain”. The article reports the findings of a study by Nokia et al. (2016) entitled “Physical exercise ...

The present essay describes the seminar on 5HT receptors and Hippocampus Stem cells. Mood and anxiety both are disorders related to cognitive behavior, and they have the similar genetic origin as well as treatment strategies. The research has exhibited that similar neural serotonin receptors are involved in pathological condition of mood and anxiety. Among all cognitive disorders, 10% are related to mood while 15-20% are associated with anxiety, showing mutual comorbidity of 30-60%. The lecturer talked about the Stem cells and neurogenesis in brain citing a quote “In the adult centers, the nerve paths are something fixed, ended, and ...

There was a time when the scientists were of the view that the human brain is of such a nature, that it stops growing and regenerating after the person has lived up to a certain age. So as per this theory, if connections between neurons developed during the first few years of an individual’s life, only the young brain possess the quality of being plastic which is having the ability to form new connections. So if a brain would become damaged, because of this theory, there was belief that it would stop forming new connections and would no ...

Chronic Stress and the Brain: Response

Stress can occur in varying levels of severity and lengths of time and result in physiological responses that proportionate to the level and duration (Greenberg, Carr & Summers 2002). The functioning of the amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are negatively affected by chronic stress in humans. The amygdala is the control center in the brain for emotions, emotional behavior and motivation (Wright). The hippocampus works closely with the amygdala; its primary functions are long term memories and declarative memory (Wright). The prefrontal cortex is responsible for goal oriented behaviors and executive functions such as short term memory, motor functions and ...

Introduction

Memory is the capacity to recall information one has experienced or learned. Many people struggle with remembering events which they have experienced or previously had information on. Students are particularly aware of this fact because they are constantly tested on what they can remember from previous class work. Today, research indicates that there is a noticeable shrink in the hippocampus during late adulthood, which leads to impaired memory, as well as a heightened risk for dementia. However, fitter adults who undertake physical activity have larger medial and hippocampal temporal lobes (der Borght, Havekes, Bos, Eggen, & Zee, 2007). According to Erickson et ...

Pituitary

The different functions performed by the anterior and posterior pituitary in terms of sex The anterior pituitary which is also known as the adenohypophysis, is basically an interior lobe (glandular) which alongside the posterior pituitary, makes up the pituitary gland. The posterior pituitary releases oxytocin which stimulates and smooth muscle contraction in the mammary glands and the uterus. The anterior pituitary on the other hand stimulates release of thyroid hormones, FSH and LH to stimulate sex cell production and release of sex hormones; it also stimulates sex cell production as well as secretes prolactin to stimulate milk production. ...

INTRODUCTION

The human body consists of tissues and organs that contain over 200 different cell types.1 these cells carry out all the functions required for viability and reproduction. It was argued long ago, that in some tissues, the differentiated cells have a shorter life span and that they are not able to self -renew.2 This led to the notion that such tissues are maintained by cells that have an extensive renewal capacity, and the ability to differentiate and generate daughter cells. These cells were termed as ‘stem cells”.2 Stem cells generate only the differentiated lineages of the tissues they reside in, ...

Adult Hippocampal neurogenesis has often been associated with hippocampus-dependent learning memory. The whole process of neuron development is highly and differently susceptible to various factors and conditions that affect its survival, as well as functionality. Various prior researches have indicated that spatial training occurring 6-10 days after an injection of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), which is a DNA synthesis marker, increased the cell’s survival rate in male rats. However, sex differences has been reported in spatial cognition and hippocampal neurogenesis, hence developing difficulties in understanding whether spatial training would affect males and females hippocampal neurogenesis similarly. Therefore, the article by ...

Abstract

The hippocampus is a part of the limbic system found in the temporal lobe. Hippocampal neurogenesis, the ability of the hippocampus to generate/produce new neurons all through to adulthood, has been linked to emotion moderation, spatial navigation, learning, memory, and cognitive function. These functions are usually impaired in depression and anxiety and hence the speculations that hippocampal neurogenesis plays a critical role in the etiology, pathophysiology and even the treatment depression and anxiety. The hippocampal neurogenesis hypothesis attempts to explain the role of hippocampal neurogenesis in the development of depression and anxiety based on findings from various studies. Findings that neurogenesis ...