Cited by 121Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanismsMemory and Neural MechanismsNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

Ablating adult neurogenesis in the rat has no effect on spatial processing: evidence from a novel pharmacogenetic model

Open access
Groves, James O., Leslie, Isla, Huang, Guo-Jen, McHugh, Stephen B., Taylor, Amy, Mott, Richard, Munafò, Marcus, Bannerman, David M. +1 more·2013·PLoS Genetics

Abstract

The function of adult neurogenesis in the rodent brain remains unclear. Ablation of adult born neurons has yielded conflicting results about emotional and cognitive impairments. One hypothesis is that adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus enables spatial pattern separation, allowing animals to distinguish between similar stimuli. We investigated whether spatial pattern separation and other putative hippocampal functions of adult neurogenesis were altered in a novel genetic model of neurogenesis ablation in the rat. In rats engineered to express thymidine kinase (TK) from a promoter of the rat glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), ganciclovir treatment reduced new neurons by 98%. GFAP-TK rats showed no significant difference from controls in spatial pattern separation on the radial maze, spatial learning in the water maze, contextual or cued fear conditioning. Meta-analysis of all published studies found no significant effects for ablation of adult neurogenesis on spatial memory, cue conditioning or ethological measures of anxiety. An effect on contextual freezing was significant at a threshold of 5% (P = 0.04), but not at a threshold corrected for multiple testing. The meta-analysis revealed remarkably high levels of heterogeneity among studies of hippocampal function. The source of this heterogeneity remains unclear and poses a challenge for studies of the function of adult neurogenesis.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003718

Cites

77 of 77 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Contradictory studies have found either no effect of reduced neurogenesis on hippocampal cognition or only on certain types of hippocampal cognitive tests, and one study found that absence of new neurons improves cognitive function.

    “On the other hand, contradictory studies have found either no effect of reduced neurogenesis on hippocampal cognition (Groves et al., 2013; Saxe et al., 2006; Shors et al., 2002) or only on certain types of hippocampal cognitive tests (Shors et al., 2002). One study has even found that the absence of new neurons improves cognitive function (Saxe et al., 2007).”

    From Adult neurogenesis, glia, and the extracellular matrix (2019) · cites this paper as Groves et al., 2013

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [73]Paxinos G, Watson C (2007) The Rat brain in sterotaxic coordinates.: Sydney: Academic Press.
  2. [75]Groves JO, Leslie I, Huang G-J, McHugh SB, Taylor A, et al (2013) Ablating adult neurogenesis in the rat has no effect on spatial processing: evidence from a novel pharmacogenetic model. Plos Genetics PMC3764151 24039591
  3. [76]Imayoshi I, Sakamoto M, Ohtsuka T, Takao K, Miyakawa T, et al (2008) Roles of continuous neurogenesis in the structural and functional integrity of the adult forebrain. Nat Neurosci 11: 1153– 1161. 18758458

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Groves, J. O., Leslie, I., Huang, G.-J., McHugh, S. B., Taylor, A., Mott, R., Munafò, M., Bannerman, D. M., & Flint, J.
Affiliations
  • Centre for Human Genetics (GB)
  • Chang Gung University (TW)
  • University of Oxford (GB)
  • University of Bristol (GB)
Corresponding author
Bannerman, David M.
Venue
PLoS Genetics
Published
2013-09-05
Volume
9
Issue
9
Pages
e1003718
ISSN
  • 1553-7390 (ISSN-L)
  • 1553-7404
OpenAlex
W2089949016
Cited by
121
References
77
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 2
FWCI
1.86
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS Genetics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion)
Funders
Wellcome Trust (089269, 083573, 084655, 087736, 089269/Z/09/Z, 090532, 083573/Z/07/Z, 090532/Z/09/Z, 090532/Z/09/, 083573/Z/07)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
Keywords
adult neurogenesis, hippocampus, spatial pattern separation, spatial learning, spatial memory, fear conditioning, contextual fear, ganciclovir, anxiety
MeSH terms
Animals, Anxiety, Conditioning, Psychological, Fear, Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein, Hippocampus, Memory, Neurons, Pharmacogenetics, Thymidine Kinase, Maze Learning, Rats, Neurogenesis, Cognitive Dysfunction

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review