Regions such as the hippocampus and the amygdala undergo substantial volumetric and connectivity changes in childhood and adolescence, and exhibit plasticity throughout the lifespan. The complex cellular mechanisms underlying development and plasticity in limbic circuits is still being explored. I contributed to research supporting the conclusion that adult neurogenesis is limited or non-existent in the human hippocampus. In lieu of adult neurogenesis, limbic circuit development and plasticity may be influenced by neurons that mature on a relatively delayed trajectory. Specifically, in the paralaminar nucleus of the human amygdala, there is a population of immature neurons that develop slowly throughout development and continuing into adulthood. I helped discover that mice also have a paralaminar nucleus with immature neurons comparable to those in humans. Additionally, I contributed to the hypothesis that these neurons are a substrate for structural plasticity in limbic circuits and may be disrupted in mood-related psychiatric disorders.
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Delayed maturation and migration of excitatory neurons in the juvenile mouse paralaminar amygdala. Alderman PJ, Saxon D, Torrijos-Saiz LI, Sharief M, Page CE, Baroudi JK, Biagiotti S, Butyrkin VA, Melamed A, Kuo CT, Vicini S, García-Verdugo JM, Herranz-Pérez V, Corbin JG, Sorrells SF. Neuron (2023).
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Immature excitatory neurons in the amygdala come of age during puberty. Page CE, Biagiotti S, Alderman PJ, Sorrells SF. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (2022)
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Positive controls in adults and children support that very few, if any, new neurons are born in the adult human hippocampus. Sorrells SF, Paredes MF, Zhang Z, Kang G, Pastor-Alonso O, Biagiotti S, Page CE, Sandoval K, Knox A, Connolly A, Huang EJ, Garcia-Verdugo JM, Oldham MC, Yang Z, Alvarez-Buylla A. Journal of Neuroscience (2021)