NEUROSCI 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Dentate Gyrus, Immunohistochemistry, Subgranular Zone
21 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
The birth of new neurons mainly occurs in the hippocampus (dentate gyrus) and the olfactory bulb (for maintenance) Neuronal stem cells and progenitor cells are continuously dividing in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus. These cells migrate into the dg, where they mature into adult neurons. The cell expresses different proteins at different stages of development. Function of hippocampal neurogenesis: spatial navigation and forming explicit, episodic memories. Dg has a particular role in pattern separation. Neuronal level: differences in the population of neurons that are activated from one event to the other. Young dg neurons are more excitable (have a lower threshold to fire an action potential and are more likely to exhibit plastic changes. Mature neurons are sufficient to encode familiar features but not novel features. Young neurons are capable of encoding all inputs. Methods: immunohistochemistry (ihc) to label different proteins in the brain. Brian cut into very thin sections and sequentially incubated with antibodies.
