Sequenced evidence

Abstract

Challenging the long-held dogma that the generation of neurons ends in mammals early after birth, pioneering papers in the 1960s suggested that new neurons are born in the rodent brain throughout life. These adult-born neurons were detected in several regions, including the hippocampus, which is important for learning, memory, and mood control and is impaired in diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. From this emerged a decades-long controversy, with numerous studies providing evidence for—or against—the lifelong activity of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) as a source of newborn neurons in the human hippocampus. On page 58 of this issue, Dumitru et al. (1) report the use of single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) and spatial transcriptomics to identify cells with transcriptional signatures of NPCs and newborn neurons in the human hippocampus from childhood to old age. Together with previous work (2–4), the findings indicate that neurogenesis persists throughout life in the human hippocampus.