USC-led study of patients with epilepsy shows how making new neurons benefits cognition in adults.

Why do adults make new brain cells? A new study published in Cell Stem Cell provides the first cellular evidence that making new brain cells in adults supports verbal learning and memory, which enables people to have conversations and to remember what they hear. This discovery could point to new approaches to restore cognitive function.

The study, led by scientists from USC Stem Cell and the USC Neurorestoration Center at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, relied on brain tissue from patients with drug-resistant cases of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE), which involves seizures as well as accelerated cognitive decline.

“Treating patients with epilepsy allows us to investigate the purpose of generating new neurons in our brains. We observe that one of reasons is to learn from the conversations we have” said co-corresponding author Michael Bonaguidi, an associate professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, gerontology, biochemistry and molecular medicine, biomedical engineering, and neurological surgery, and assistant director of the USC Neurorestoration Center.

“These findings are clearly important for all people who suffer from learning and cognitive decline, but they are also specifically relevant to the epilepsy patients who participated in the research,” added co-corresponding author Charles Liu, a professor of neurological surgery, neurology, and biomedical engineering, director of the USC Neurorestoration Center, and director of the USC Epilepsy Care Consortium.

In the study, first authors Aswathy Ammothumkandy and Luis Corona from USC and their collaborators investigated how the process of making new brain cells—called neurogenesis—affects different types of cognitive decline during the progression of MTLE.

To read more, visit https://stemcell.keck.usc.edu/to-remember-conversations-keep-making-new-brain-cells.