The Harvard Gazette: With A Song In Their Heads — Birth of new brain cells induced in birds
picture from The Harvard Gazette:Zebra finches produce a constant trickle of new brain cells that researchers have manipulated to replace dead cells that the birds need for singing. The finch on the left is an adult male; the one on the right is a young male.
Brain cells that make it possible for zebra finches to sing were forced to die then brought back to life by researchers at Harvard and Rockefeller universities. In a major biological first, quiescent stem cells naturally present in the birds brains were induced to replace the lost cells and restore the finches ability to sing their distinctive song.
Upon the death of mature song cells, immature cells were induced to “awake” from a dormant state. They moved to the right place in the brain, and made connections needed to repair the damage.
“Our results represent the restoration of a brain circuit involved in a complex learned behavior,” says Jeffrey Macklis, associate professor of neurology in the Division of Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. “It is a step toward doing the same thing in mammals.”
Mammals include humans, and Macklis sees the future possibility of using such approaches to treat damage done by spinal cord injuries, strokes, and degenerative conditions such as Huntingtons and Alzheimers diseases. Even keeping normal brain cells healthy, and thus slowing aging, is not out of the question.
