How Old Brains Got New Neurons

The brain is the command center of our bodies, integrating information from the periphery and providing sophisticated control over behavior. The brain stores memories and is considered to determine who we are. This concept goes hand in hand with an important feature of the brain: neurons are some of the few cell types in the body that do not divide once they have matured, meaning that the sets of neurons generated during our in utero and early postnatal development are the only building blocks of the brain. Or so it was thought.