Can Adults Grow New Neurons?
The answer used to be obvious. Now it's a live debate.
For most of the 20th century, scientists believed you were born with every brain cell you'd ever have. A 1998 study found signs of newly-generated neurons in the adult human hippocampus, and the textbook story flipped. But in 2018, two high-profile studies using similar techniques reached opposite conclusions in the same month, and the debate has only intensified since.
If neurogenesis happens in adult humans at all, it's rare, slow, and nothing like the pop-science picture of growing new brain cells by going for a run. The rodent version is real and dramatic. The human version appears to be, at most, a trickle of new cells in the hippocampus, with unclear impact on how you think or feel day to day. The good news? The lifestyle advice that might support it (exercise, sleep, learning, stress management) is exactly what supports brain health through many other well-established mechanisms.
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Can Adults Grow New Neurons?