ArticleNature2018
Human hippocampal neurogenesis drops sharply in children to undetectable levels in adults.
Article in Nature, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 761 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
761 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Hippocampal neurogenesis in adult primates: a systematic review.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of psychedelics on neurogenesis and broader neuroplasticity: a systematic review.Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Pooled it
- Role of Agrin in tissue repair and regeneration: From mechanisms to therapeutic opportunities (Review).International journal of molecular medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Hippocampal subfield plasticity is associated with improved spatial memory.Communications biology · 2024Trial
- Neuronal migration into injured tissue: mechanisms and therapeutic strategies for brain regeneration.Regenerative therapy · 2026Review
- Unraveling the potential of gasotransmitters as neurogenic and neuroprotective molecules: focus on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.Redox report : communications in free radical research · 2026Review
- Sleep forms flexible context representations in toddlers.Nature communications · 2026Article
- HAND in Africa: prevalence, diagnostic challenges and the search for objective markers.Journal of neurovirology · 2026Review
- Multiscale characterization and distribution of the thyroid hormone transporter MCT8 in the adult and aged human brain.Acta neuropathologica communications · 2026Article
- Article
- Roles of lactate and protein lactylation in neurogenesis and neurodegenerative disease.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Exercise and Productive Hippocampal Neurogenesis After Stroke: From Niche Remodeling to Cognitive Recovery.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Quiescence as an Active and Dynamic Regulator of Neural Stem Cells in Adult Olfactory Neurogenesis.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Review
- Molecular pathways underlying amyloid precursor protein-mediated regulation of adult-born neurons.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Construction and Applicability Scenarios of 3D Neurovascular Unit Models In Vitro.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- Article
- Proliferative Effects of the Psychedelic N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in Human Neural Stem Cells.ACS chemical neuroscience · 2026Article
- High-Resolution Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging of Hippocampus Subfields Across the Healthy Lifespan.NMR in biomedicine · 2026Article
- Conversion of human glial cells into neurons in ex vivo culture of human brain tissue: Essential roles of the transcription factors NeuroD1 and Ascl1.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Role of 5-hydroxytryptamine type 3 receptors in aerobic exercise-induced improvement of memory and hippocampal synaptic plasticity.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
701 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
19 authors.
Funding
Abstract
New neurons continue to be generated in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus of the adult mammalian hippocampus. This process has been linked to learning and memory, stress and exercise, and is thought to be altered in neurological disease. In humans, some studies have suggested that hundreds of new neurons are added to the adult dentate gyrus every day, whereas other studies find many fewer putative new neurons. Despite these discrepancies, it is generally believed that the adult human hippocampus continues to generate new neurons. Here we show that a defined population of progenitor cells does not coalesce in the subgranular zone during human fetal or postnatal development. We also find that the number of proliferating progenitors and young neurons in the dentate gyrus declines sharply during the first year of life and only a few isolated young neurons are observed by 7 and 13 years of age. In adult patients with epilepsy and healthy adults (18-77 years; n = 17 post-mortem samples from controls; n = 12 surgical resection samples from patients with epilepsy), young neurons were not detected in the dentate gyrus. In the monkey (Macaca mulatta) hippocampus, proliferation of neurons in the subgranular zone was found in early postnatal life, but this diminished during juvenile development as neurogenesis decreased. We conclude that recruitment of young neurons to the primate hippocampus decreases rapidly during the first years of life, and that neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus does not continue, or is extremely rare, in adult humans. The early decline in hippocampal neurogenesis raises questions about how the function of the dentate gyrus differs between humans and other species in which adult hippocampal neurogenesis is preserved.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.