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A functional hypothesis for adult hippocampal neurogenesis: Avoidance of catastrophic interference in the dentate gyrus
Author(s) -
Wiskott Laurenz,
Rasch Malte J.,
Kempermann Gerd
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
hippocampus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.767
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1098-1063
pISSN - 1050-9631
DOI - 10.1002/hipo.20167
Subject(s) - dentate gyrus , hippocampal formation , neuroscience , neurogenesis , hippocampus , psychology , computer science
The dentate gyrus is part of the hippocampal memory system and special in that it generates new neurons throughout life. Here we discuss the question of what the functional role of these new neurons might be. Our hypothesis is that they help the dentate gyrus to avoid the problem of catastrophic interference when adapting to new environments. We assume that old neurons are rather stable and preserve an optimal encoding learned for known environments while new neurons are plastic to adapt to those features that are qualitatively new in a new environment. A simple network simulation demonstrates that adding new plastic neurons is indeed a successful strategy for adaptation without catastrophic interference. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

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