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A human dendritic cell (blue) interacting with and activating a lymphocyte (pink).

Image by Olivier Schwartz and the Electron Microscopy Core Facility, Institut Pasteur.

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION!

Every Sunday, a question will be asked about one of the images from the past week. Be the first to answer correctly, and your blog will be promoted on Monday’s image post and Biocanvas’s main site!

Neurogenesis, the birth of new neurons, occurs throughout adulthood in two locations of the brain. One of these locations is in the hippocampus, which is responsible for processing memories and aiding in learning. If neurogenesis occurs throughout life in this area, then one would expect the hippocampus to increase continuously in size. This, however, is not the case.

How does the hippocampus remain relatively the same size while still having active sites of new cell genesis?

Answer: Present cells die at an equal rate to the generation of new cells, resulting in a net gain of approximately no new cells.

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Sunday, November 18th, 2012
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    A human dendritic cell (blue) interacting with and activating a lymphocyte (pink). Image by Olivier Schwartz and the...
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