Adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus from a perspective of discrimination and generalization: A Hypothesis.

摘要

qualities, such as their low excitability threshold.Many behavioral tests have been used to test these theories, butresults have been inconsistent and often contradictory.Substantial variability in tests and protocols may be at leastpartially responsible for the mixed results. On the other hand,conflicting results arising from the same tests can serve as aids inelucidating the function of adult neurogenesis. Here, we offera hypothesis that considers the cognitive nature of taskscommonly used to assess the function of adult neurogenesis, andintroduce a dichotomy between tasks focused on discriminationvs. generalization. We view these two aspects as opposite endsof the continuous spectrum onto which traditional tests can bemapped. We propose that high neurogenesis favors behavioraldiscrimination while low adult neurogenesis favors behavioralgeneralization of a knowledge or rule. Since many tasks requireboth, the effects of neurogenesis could be cancelled out in manycases. Although speculative, we hope that our view presents aninteresting and testable hypothesis of the effect of adultneurogenesis in traditional behavioral tasks. We conclude thatnew, carefully designed behavioral tests may be necessary toreach a final consensus on the role of adult neurogenesis inbehavior.