Gould's research sheds light on structural changes in brain
Deep in the bowels of Green Hall, professors aren't the only ones making noise. The monkeys are just as loud.In elaborate cages packed with spinach and other greens, colorful obstacles and fruit-filled logs, a colony of 44 marmosets ? a type of New World monkey ? are living under intense scrutiny.What they, and other animals like them, have shown has overturned one of the central dogmas of neuroscience by disproving the idea that mammals are born with all the neurons they will ever have. Innovative studiesFor more than a decade, psychology professor Elizabeth Gould has conducted dozens of innovative studies in rats and monkeys, demonstrating that new neurons are constantly produced in the adult brains of mammals, including primates.Her work may have wide-reaching significance, from better understanding how we store memories and react to anxiety and stress to the possibility of repairing damaged brain parts.To get to this stage, though, it is necessary to start with monkeys.A group of small primates native to South America, marmosets have a characteristic that make them particularly interesting to study.