The brains of people with depression seem to be worse at producing new neurons than are those of people without the disorder. That's according to a study1 that includes the most comprehensive map of the cell types in the human adult hippocampus, a brain region involved in learning, memory and emotions. For more than 20 years, some researchers have suspected2 that a disruption in neurogenesis ' the process of making new neurons ' could be involved in depression. 'This paper, excitingly, is the first to show at single-cell resolution exactly where in the process things appear to be awry and what molecular machinery is involved,' says Amelia Eisch, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who was not involved with the research. The study, which was published last week in Nature Medicine, doesn't establish that impaired neurogenesis plays a part in causing depression, and researchers are careful to note that depression involves multiple brain areas, not just...
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