The myth

You can’t grow more brain cells. Every human starts with a finite number, some of which are destroyed – and never replaced – every time we figure out what two plus two makes, or try to remember where we’ve left our glasses.

The "truth"


This still-prevalent belief was expelled from the halls of orthodoxy some years ago, when scientists discovered that all vertebrate animals continue to produce new neurons (brain cells) throughout their lives, in at least some parts of the brain. More recently, it has been shown that the fresh cells are actively involved in the formation of memory.