Contradicting Rakic's findings in 1998 was neuroscientist Elizabeth Gould, Princeton University, who used a new labeling technique to show that the adult marmoset brain generated neurons.3 The following year she published findings that some neurons were made in the neocortex, which is home to higher cognitive functions such as language and complex thought in primates.4
Rakic looked for new neurons in adult macaque monkeys by labeling neuronal and glial cells with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). He found newly generated neurons, which were limited to the hippocampus and olfactory bulb; some BrdU cells were found in the neocortex but were identified to be non-neuronal.
In the past, Gould's team had said Rakic waited too long to detect new neurons, which usually die within nine weeks of birth. Rakic noted in his paper that he did search for them within a shorter time period. Coauthor David Kornack, assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy in ...
