Interesting article in the NY Times Science section this week. Apparently
chicadee birds grow additional cells in the hippocampus during the fall when
they are hiding food for winter storage, the theory being that they need
additional memory to remember the numerous places where they stash the
goodies.
Since new neurons are created rather than just making more synapsis, the
study suggests that the neuron rather than the synapse might be the basic
unit of memory.
DB
