WASHINGTON: In what is being claimed as a major breakthrough, scientists have found clues to why some people are more susceptible to stress than others -- it's due to the birth of new nerve cells in the brain.
A team at Texas University has based its findings on a study of two groups of laboratory mice who were exposed to stressful events, and analysed the animals' brains after a couple of weeks.
"This work shows that there is a period of time during which it may be possible to alter memories relevant to a social situation by manipulating adult-generated nerve cells in the brain.
"This could eventually lead to a better understanding of why, in humans, there is an enormous variety of responses to stressful situations," lead scientist Amelia Eisch wrote in the 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' journal.
In the study, the brain cells of both groups of mice responded in similar ways after a stressful event.
But weeks later, the scientists found mice displaying social avoidance had more nerve cells in a region of the brain -- hippocampus -- that survived the stressful event than mice that were more resilient.
In fact, the mice that were more susceptible to stress exhibited enhanced neurogenesis - the birth of new nerve cells in the brain. Specifically the cells that the animals produced after a stressful event survived longer than new brain cells produced by mice that were more resilient.
source: TOI
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