Overview
- Boston University researchers report in Current Biology that adult-born neurons in zebra finches push through mature brain tissue, deforming nearby cells.
- High-resolution electron microscopy let the team watch the cells migrate without glial scaffolds, the guiding supports long assumed to be required.
- The authors say this forceful movement could disrupt existing circuits and stored memories, which could be why mammals restrict adult neurogenesis.
- University of Washington neurobiologist Eliot Brenowitz cautions that bird and mammal forebrains are organized differently, so parallels to humans are uncertain.
- The team has begun single-cell RNA sequencing to map the signals between tunneling neurons and neighboring cells, a step that could guide future brain repair strategies.