New olfactory neurons form in the brain during pregnancy
Published: Friday, Nov 24th 2023, 09:20
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According to a new study, neurons develop in the olfactory bulb in the brains of expectant mouse mothers during pregnancy. It is thanks to them that the mothers recognize their own children by smell.
A few weeks after birth, the additional neurons disappear again, as a study by researchers from the University of Basel published in the journal "Science" on Thursday evening showed. Recognizing the young by smell ensures that mothers raise their own young.
The Basel research team has discovered that during pregnancy, certain pools of stem cells develop in the brain, some of which are normally in a kind of dormant state. This enables the formation of new neurons in the olfactory bulb, a region of the brain that processes information about odors. The different stem cell pools are stimulated in waves and at different times during pregnancy.
Similar processes in humans?
The study examined the brains of mice. However, there are also stem cells in the same brain area in humans, as the University of Basel explained in a press release. However, these no longer form neurons for the olfactory bulb from early infancy.
However, as some women report changes in their sense of smell during pregnancy, first author Zayna Chaker suspects that similar processes could take place in human brains as in mice. "Here, too, pregnancy could awaken stem cells from their switch state," Chaker was quoted as saying in the press release.
The researchers are now planning to conduct further studies to investigate which signals trigger the recruitment of stem cells and the formation of new nerve cells during pregnancy, according to the University of Basel. It also needs to be clarified why and how the newly formed nerve cells in the olfactory bulb are degraded again and whether similar remodeling processes take place in the brain of expectant fathers.
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