Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
Nat Neurosci. 2012 Dec;15(12):1613-20. doi: 10.1038/nn.3262. Epub 2012 Nov 27.
Although an influence of adult neurogenesis in mediating some of the effects of antidepressants has received considerable attention in recent years, much less is known about how alterations in this form of plasticity may contribute to psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression. One way to begin to address this question is to link the functions of adult-born hippocampal neurons with specific endophenotypes of these disorders. Recent studies have implicated adult-born hippocampal neurons in pattern separation, a process by which similar experiences or events are transformed into discrete, non-overlapping representations. Here we propose that impaired pattern separation underlies the overgeneralization often seen in anxiety disorders, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder, and therefore represents an endophenotype for these disorders. The development of new, pro-neurogenic compounds may therefore have therapeutic potential for patients who display pattern separation deficits.
虽然近年来，成年神经发生在介导某些抗抑郁药的作用方面受到了相当多的关注，但对于这种形式的可塑性的改变如何导致焦虑和抑郁等精神疾病的发生知之甚少。解决这个问题的一种方法是将成年海马神经元的功能与这些疾病的特定表型相关联。最近的研究表明，成年海马神经元参与模式分离，这是一种将相似的经历或事件转化为离散的、不重叠的表示的过程。在这里，我们提出，在焦虑障碍中经常出现的过度泛化，特别是创伤后应激障碍和惊恐障碍，是由于模式分离受损所致，因此，这是这些疾病的一个表型。因此，开发新的、促进神经发生的化合物可能对表现出模式分离缺陷的患者具有治疗潜力。
