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. Then, 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, one finding almost no neurogenesis after childhood, the other finding it continuing into old age. The debate has only intensified since.
In real life...
The things that might support neurogenesis, if it happens, are the same things that support brain health through many other well-established mechanisms: regular movement, good sleep, learning new things, managing stress. You don't need the neurogenesis story to be true for any of that advice to be worth following. Focus on the habits. The cellular details will keep being worked out.