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Previous efforts to discover new brain cell formation have focused on infants and adults. Prior to 2013, it was not widely considered that adolescence might be a time of new cell development, although in retrospect it would be logical to consider that it might. Adolescence and the onset of puberty is a time of tumultuous growth and change, including new social learning and the new pressures of mating. This period of dramatic change seems a propitious time to have increased cells for learning and memory, especially emotional and social learning.

It has now been shown that extensive brain remodeling occurs in adolescence, including some neurogenesis. One recent study at Yale showed that blocking production of new cells in adolescent mice made them very antisocial, whereas the same interruption in adults did not. Although normal mice spend considerable time interacting and exploring, without the production of new cells in adolescence, they lacked interest in social activities—it appeared as if they didn’t even recognize other mice. This observation implies that neurogenesis is critical to social life in adolescence. The authors of this study assumed the new cell production was in the hippocampus; they did not consider the possibility that it was in the amygdala.

In the recent study in adolescent hamsters, however, the Michigan State team discovered new cells in the amygdala and connected limbic regions—areas in which such cells had never been seen. These limbic regions are related to social learning, evaluation of facial expressions and body language, and are very important for mating behavior. The Michigan scientists noted that these new cells were not minted and then promptly destroyed, as happens to many cells, but were fully integrated into the brain circuitry. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/2013/03/26/emotion
al-needs-in-teens-may-spur-the-growth-of-new-brain-cells/

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