“The apocryphal tale that you can’t grow new brain cells just isn’t true.” That is the first sentence of an online article by LiveScience reviewing a study by Wei-Chung Allen Lee of MIT, which was detailed in the Dec. 27, 2005 issue of the journal for the Public Library of Science (PLOS) Biology.
More and more statements like these are popping up all over the world of fundamental neuroscience. Articles like this one in LiveScience are useful to show to those who still struggle to reconsider their belief that the nervous system is the only part of the body that does not renew itself.
We would also like to highlight part of the article:
“The researchers observed the part of the brain responsible for vision, called the visual cortex, over the course of a few months. In order to see directly into the brain, the researchers implanted glass windows over two areas of the visual cortex while the mice were still young.”
Now you understand why this type of research on humans is simply impossible. Fortunately, the brain of a rat behaves 99% the same way as a human brain would in the same situations.
Here is the link to the LiveScience article: Full Article