The Role of Adult Neurogenesis in Contextual Learning and Memory Interference

• Main Author: Luu, Paul
• Other Authors: Wojtowicz, Jan Martin
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Behaviour; Neurogenesis; Interference; Irradiation; 0384; 0633; 0317; 0719
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/35518

New neurons are continually produced throughout adult life in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, in a process termed adult neurogenesis. Although there is a significant effort in the literature to understand the functional significance of hippocampal neurogenesis, conflicting experimental reports have left the role of neurogenesis unclear. Recently, computational modelling studies have hypothesized that neurogenesis may play a role in allowing association between event and context to be formed in memory. By using a novel odour task and a raised plus maze task, our work demonstrates that the reduction of hippocampal neurogenesis using focal irradiation impairs the ability of animal subjects to utilize contextual information to learn interfering information. The result of this work provides experimental evidence of a unique role neurogenesis may play in learning and memory.