Neurogenesis in the Adult Brain II

This book will illustrate major advances in the field of adult neurogenesis and their possible application to the therapies for brain diseases. It used to be believed that neurons are never generated in the adult mammalian brain. Recently, however, this paradigm has been shifted. Several lines of evidence have shown that neurons continue to be generated in some special adult brain regions such as the hippocampus and subventricular zone of the forebrain in mammals including humans. The new paradigm raises the possibility of therapeutic neuron replacement in degenerative diseases or brain trauma. Particularly a major focus of the book is to provide the readers with up-to-date information on the basic mechanisms that regulate the proliferation, differentiation and survival of neural stem or progenitor cells and how new neurons are integrated into the adult nervous tissue. This provides stem cell researcher and clinical investigators with an important information for considering the therapeutic potential of adult neural stem cells. Additionally, this book will fascinates many neurophysiologists and neuropsychologists who work on the mechanism underlying learning and memory function in the hippocampus to which new neurons continue to be added throughout life.