Effects of adult neurogenesis on episodic memory interference
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1
University of Toronto, Department of Physiology, Canada
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2
Cornell University, Department of Psychology, United States
Adult neurogenesis is restricted to the Dentate Gyrus (DG) and the sub-ventricular zone (SVZ). These areas continuously supply new neurons to the hippocampus and olfactory bulb respectively. Newly generated neurons from the SVZ migrate to the olfactory bulb where they have been shown to fulfil a regenerative role in the olfactory bulb, and may play a role in boosting the ability to discriminate between odors in rats. New neurons within the DG have been shown to play a role in learning and memory; however their specific functional significance has been not well understood. Recent computational and behavioural work on adult neurogenesis has begun to implicate the presence of new hippocampal neurons in the reduction of memory interference. The presence of young neurons may play a role in allowing additional representation of contextual information within two interfering memory traces, allowing for orthogonalization and reduction of interference. We postulate that by selectively disrupting the proliferation of new neurons in the DG, while sparing neurogenesis in the SVZ, the ability to learn highly interfering pieces of information will be impaired while the ability to learn non-interfering information will be spared. In order to address this hypothesis, rats were trained on a novel memory interference task in which two interfering lists of odours was taught to irradiated (8 Gy) and non-irradiated (0 Gy) rats in the same or different contexts. Sections of the Hippocampus, SVZ, Rostral Migratory Stream (RMS) and Olfactory Bulb were stained using immunohistochemistry for doublecortin (DCX), and Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to characterize the effect of irradiation on the brain. Preliminary analysis of the RMS revealed no significant reduction in neurogenesis. Preliminary analysis of the DG reveal that presence of new neurons was reduced by approximately 64±33% (n=3) in irradiated rats in comparison to the control group. Initial behavioural results show no effect of irradiation on learning the first list, but reveal impairment in learning the second list which involves substantial interference. Data suggest that that the neurogenesis may have a specific effect on learning in high interference situations.
Conference:
B.R.A.I.N. platform in Physiology poster day 2009, Toronto, ON, Canada, 16 Dec - 16 Dec, 2009.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Poster presentations
Citation:
Luu
P,
Hutchings
I,
Smith
DM and
Wojtowicz
MJ
(2009). Effects of adult neurogenesis on episodic memory interference.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
B.R.A.I.N. platform in Physiology poster day 2009.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.03.2009.17.031
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Received:
17 Dec 2009;
Published Online:
17 Dec 2009.
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Correspondence:
Paul Luu, University of Toronto, Department of Physiology, Toronto, Canada, paul.luu@utoronto.ca