Scientists have known for some time that new neurons are constantly forming in the brain, a process known asneurogénesis What is itmore intense in childhood and adolescence. In experiments with mice, the Yale team decided to explore the function of these new neurons in brains of different ages. And they found that if neurogenesis was interrupted in adolescence, when the mice reached adulthood they were not interested or curious to get close to other mice, and they avoided interactions and encounters with other individuals of their species. “They acted as if they didn’t recognize the other mice as mice,” Kaffman explains. In contrast, normal adult mice spent much of the day interacting with unfamiliar mice. Furthermore, they showed that if neurogenesis was blocked once the animals were adults, social behavior was not altered. Therefore, thecorrect functioning of the brain in adolescence conditions behavior as adults.
The researchers believe that the research could also help to understand theschizophrenia, which is characterized by a deficit in the formation of new neurons in an area known as the hippocampus, and whose first symptoms usually appear precisely in adolescence.
