The DOI matches its Crossref record; 76 of the 77 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Ablating Adult Neurogenesis in the Rat Has No Effect on Spatial Processing: Evidence from a Novel Pharmacogenetic Model
Open accessAbstract
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.
Overview
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.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
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.
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?
In the citing paper
“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.
Citations
Cites
Conducting Meta-Analyses in R with the metafor Package
Viechtbauer, W. (2010) · Journal of Statistical Software · doi:10.18637/jss.v036.i03 · Cited by 20,464
Requirement of hippocampal neurogenesis for the behavioral effects of antidepressants
Santarelli, L., Saxe, M., Gross, C., Surget, A., Battaglia, F., Dulawa, S., Weisstaub, N., Lee, J., Duman, R., Arancio, O., et al. (2003) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1083328 · Cited by 4,321
Differential contribution of amygdala and hippocampus to cued and contextual fear conditioning.
Phillips, R. G., & LeDoux, J. E. (1992) · Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.1037/0735-7044.106.2.274 · Cited by 3,292
Kuhn, H., Dickinson-Anson, H., & Gage, F. (1996) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.16-06-02027.1996 · Cited by 3,139
Functional neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus
van Praag, H., Schinder, A. F., Christie, B. R., Toni, N., Palmer, T. D., & Gage, F. H. (2002) · Nature · doi:10.1038/4151030a · Cited by 2,853
A gene expression atlas of the central nervous system based on bacterial artificial chromosomes
Gong, S., Zheng, C., Doughty, M. L., Losos, K., Didkovsky, N., Schambra, U. B., Nowak, N. J., Joyner, A., Leblanc, G., Hatten, M. E., et al. (2003) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature02033 · Cited by 2,108
Remembrance of places passed: Spatial memory in rats.
Olton, D. S., & Samuelson, R. J. (1976) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Animal Behavior Processes · doi:10.1037/0097-7403.2.2.97 · Cited by 1,993
A Functional Role for Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Spatial Pattern Separation
Clelland, C. D., Choi, M., Romberg, C., Clemenson, G. D., Fragniere, A., Tyers, P., Jessberger, S., Saksida, L. M., Barker, R. A., Gage, F. H., et al. (2009) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1173215 · Cited by 1,642
Pattern Separation in the Dentate Gyrus and CA3 of the Hippocampus
Leutgeb, J. K., Leutgeb, S., Moser, M.-B., & Moser, E. I. (2007) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1135801 · Cited by 1,601 · cited 1×
“Pattern separation is the ability to distinguish between similar, overlapping inputs [33,34].”
BackgroundIncreasing adult hippocampal neurogenesis is sufficient to improve pattern separation
Sahay, A., Scobie, K. N., Hill, A. S., O'Carroll, C. M., Kheirbek, M. A., Burghardt, N. S., Fenton, A. A., Dranovsky, A., & Hen, R. (2011) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature09817 · Cited by 1,567
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 77 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Paxinos G, Watson C (2007) The Rat brain in sterotaxic coordinates. : Sydney: Academic Press.
- JO Groves, 2013, Ablating adult neurogenesis in the rat has no effect on spatial processing: evidence from a novel pharmacogenetic model, Plos Genetics
- I Imayoshi, 2008, Roles of continuous neurogenesis in the structural and functional integrity of the adult forebrain, Nat Neurosci, 11, 1153, 10.1038/nn.2185 · DOI · Paper page
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 101–120 of 120
Afferni, P., Cascino-Milani, F., Mattera, A., & Baldassarre, G. (2022) · Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fncom.2022.954847 · Cited by 2
Stk24 deficiency causes disrupted hippocampal neurogenesis and anxiety-like behavior in mice
Wu, K., Tsao, C.-H., Su, N. C., Deng, S., & Huang, G. (2025) · Communications Biology · doi:10.1038/s42003-025-08035-6 · Cited by 2
Physical exercise for brain health in later life: how does it work?
Lampit, A., Duffy, S. L., & Valenzuela, M. (2016) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9781316157565.011 · Cited by 2
Role of hippocampal dentate granule cells in memory: neuronal birth timing matters
Blin, N., & Abrous, D. N. (2026) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/s41380-026-03745-7 · Cited by 1
Adult Neurogenesis in the Hippocampus: A Role in Learning and Memory
Cope, E. C., & Gould, E. (2017) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-809324-5.21115-2 · Cited by 1
The evolutionary significance of hippocampal neurogenesis
França, T. F. A. (2018) · European Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1111/ejn.14144 · Cited by 1
Inhibiting adult neurogenesis differentially affects spatial learning in females and malesPreprint
O’Leary, T. P., Askari, B., Lee, B. A., Darby, K., Knudson, C., Ash, A. M., Seib, D. R., Espinueva, D. F., & Snyder, J. S. (2021) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2021.10.27.466135 · Cited by 1
Pochinski, B. (2014) · UWM Digital Commons (University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee)
Lee, K. S. H. (2016) · uO Research (University of Ottawa) · doi:10.20381/ruor-5556
Social instability, hippocampal plasticity and resilience
Opendak, M. M. (2015)
Kent, B. A. (2015) · Apollo (University of Cambridge) · doi:10.17863/cam.16474
O’Leary, J. D. (2017) · Cork Open Research Archive (University College Cork, Ireland)
The role of hippocampal subregions in learning and memory
Shin, J., Lee, J. W., & Jung, M. W. (2025) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-443-15754-7.00079-1
Li, R., Xiong, W., & Sun, C. (2025) · International Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/00207454.2025.2540989
Kempermann, G. (2025) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/med/9780197519233.003.0003
Kempermann, G. (2025) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/med/9780197519233.003.0010
Ward, M. D., Snyder, J. S., & Seib, D. R. (2026) · Behavioural Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2026.116151
Serrano, C. (2020) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/78f0fd9ez9539z4840z8e1dz06c913388dc3
Planchez, B., Kaci, M.-L., Legrand, M., Sakai, Y., Meriau, P., Pena, L., Morel, L., Picquet, S., Frerot, A., Brizard, B., et al. (2026) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2026.09.017
Metadata
- 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
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2013-09-05
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- e1003718
- ISSN
- 1553-7390 (ISSN-L)
- 1553-7404
- PMC
- PMC3764151
- 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
- gold
- doi.org
- 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
