Journal Article

Adult neurogenesis improves spatial information encoding in the mouse hippocampus

McDermott, Kelsey D., Frechou, M. Agustina, Tomé, Wolfgang A., Coen-Cagli, Ruben, Gökhan, Şölen, Huaman, Evan A., Martin, Sunaina S., Gonçalves, J. Tiago

2024

Overview

Adult neurogenesis is a unique form of neuronal plasticity in which newly generated neurons are integrated into the adult dentate gyrus in a process that is modulated by environmental stimuli. Adult-born neurons can contribute to spatial memory, but it is unknown whether they alter neural representations of space in the hippocampus. Using in vivo two-photon calcium imaging, we find that male and female mice previously housed in an enriched environment, which triggers an increase in neurogenesis, have increased spatial information encoding in the dentate gyrus. Ablating adult neurogenesis blocks the effect of enrichment and lowers spatial information, as does the chemogenetic silencing of adult-born neurons. Both ablating neurogenesis and silencing adult-born neurons decreases the calcium activity of dentate gyrus neurons, resulting in a decreased amplitude of place-specific responses. These findings are in contrast with previous studies that suggested a predominantly inhibitory action for adult-born neurons. We propose that adult neurogenesis improves representations of space by increasing the gain of dentate gyrus neurons and thereby improving their ability to tune to spatial features. This mechanism may mediate the beneficial effects of environmental enrichment on spatial learning and memory. Adult neurogenesis is a unique form of neuronal plasticity, involving the genesis and integration of newborn neurons into the mouse dentate gyrus. Here the authors demonstrate that adult neurogenesis improves representations of space in the dentate gyrus by increasing the place-specific responses of mature neurons.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 13/51 / 14/63 / 14/69 / 631/378/116/2394 / 631/378/1595/3922 / 631/378/368/2431 / Ablation / Animals / Calcium / Calcium - metabolism / Calcium imaging / Coding / Dentate gyrus / Dentate Gyrus - cytology / Dentate Gyrus - physiology / Enrichment / Environmental effects / Female / Hippocampal plasticity / Hippocampus / Hippocampus - cytology / Hippocampus - metabolism / Hippocampus - physiology / Humanities and Social Sciences / Information processing / Male / Memory tasks / Mice / Mice, Inbred C57BL / multidisciplinary / Neurogenesis / Neurogenesis - physiology / Neuronal Plasticity - physiology / Neurons / Neurons - metabolism / Neurons - physiology / Neuroplasticity / Representations / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Spatial analysis / Spatial data / Spatial discrimination learning / Spatial Learning - physiology / Spatial memory / Spatial Memory - physiology