Akers et al. (2014)

Hippocampal Neurogenesis Regulates Forgetting During Adulthood and Infancy

Science, 344(6184), 598-602

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DOI

Abstract

Forget It! When examining the relationship between the production of new neurons in the hippocampus and memory, studies have generally first manipulated hippocampal neurogenesis and afterward investigated memory formation and found that new neurons help to encode new memories. However, when investigating how similar manipulations of neurogenesis impact established hippocampus-dependent memories, Akers et al. (p. 598 ; see the Perspective by Mongiat and Schinder ) uncovered a role for neurogenesis in memory clearance. Thus, the continuous addition of new neurons both degrades existing information stored in hippocampal circuits and simultaneously provides substrates for new learning.

Reference

Akers, K. G., Martinez-Canabal, A., Restivo, L., Yiu, A. P., De Cristofaro, A., Hsiang, H. L. L., Wheeler, A. L., Guskjolen, A., Niibori, Y., Shoji, H., Ohira, K., Richards, B. A., Miyakawa, T., Josselyn, S. A., & Frankland, P. W. (2014). Hippocampal Neurogenesis Regulates Forgetting During Adulthood and Infancy. Science, 344(6184), 598-602. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1248903

What Rests on This

1 mechanism cites this source. Each finding below is quoted as it appears on that mechanism's own page.

Forgetting Memory Processes

Neural substrate

In adult mice, increasing the birth of new neurons in the hippocampal dentate gyrus after learning was enough to induce forgetting, and reducing it in infant mice lessened their rapid forgetting