News Release

New book defines promising young field of adult neurogenesis

Book Announcement

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Cover of 'Adult Neurogenesis'

image: Cover of "Adult Neurogenesis." Image shows newborn neurons in the adult mouse hippocampus labeled by retrovirus-mediated expression of fluorescent proteins (green = GFP; red = NeuN) (courtesy of Chunmei Zhao, Salk Institute for Biological Studies). view more 

Credit: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y. – Studies of the birth and incorporation of neurons into the brains of mature animals—a process known as adult neurogenesis—promise intriguing insights into the mechanisms of normal brain function and into the causes of depression and other psychiatric disorders. A new book from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (www.cshlpress.com) helps to define this relatively young field.

Adult Neurogenesis (http://www.cshlpress.com/link/adultneuro.htm) brings together leading researchers to provide a valuable overview of the field and to lay the groundwork for future studies. It will be useful for working neurobiologists as well as those with clinical interests, as it has implications for understanding normal brain processes such as aging, learning, and memory, as well as stress, epilepsy, and neurological diseases such Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s.

Many studies in the field of adult neurogenesis have been aided by exciting technological advances, including imaging techniques that permit scientists to monitor neurogenesis in live human brains. Recent research has shown that age-related memory decline is associated with a reduction in adult neurogenesis. In addition, drugs that improve depression in human patients have stimulated adult neurogenesis in animal models.

Adult Neurogenesis covers these and other hot topics. “Our aim was to integrate the field by mapping its current scope and its diverging ideas,” write the editors, Fred H. Gage, Gerd Kempermann, and Hangjun Song, in the Preface to the book.

The 30 chapters in Adult Neurogenesis include discussions on neural stem cell biology, methods and models for studying adult neurogenesis, physiological and molecular processes and their control, related neurological diseases, and comparisons of neurogenesis in humans, birds, fish, and invertebrates.

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About the book: Adult Neurogenesis (ISBN 978-087969784-6) is 673 pp. in length (illus., index) and is available in hardcover. It was edited by Fred H. Gage (The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, California, USA), Gerd Kempermann (Center for Regenerative Therapies, Dresden, Germany), and Hongjun Song (Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA). For a complete table of contents, see http://www.cshlpress.com/link/adultneuro.htm.

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press is an internationally renowned publisher of books, journals, and electronic media, located on Long Island, New York. Since 1933, it has furthered the advance and spread of scientific knowledge in all areas of genetics and molecular biology, including cancer biology, plant science, bioinformatics, and neurobiology. It is a division of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an innovator in life science research and the education of scientists, students, and the public. For more information, visit www.cshlpress.com.


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