"Diverse roles of adult neurogenesis in epilepsy"

CoNDA Center Seminar by Dr. Helen Scharfman, PhD

Wednesday, June 11th, 2025

Via Zoom |  Meeting ID: 926 9261 3428  |  Passcode: CONDA
 

In the mammalian brain, the dentate gyrus (DG) generates new neurons and they normally become granule cells (GCs), the principal cell type. It has been suggested that adult neurogenesis in the DG is required for normal cognitive functions, and it also has been suggested that adult neurogenesis plays a role in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), where seizures involve the DG. Our results indicate that newborn neurons influence activity in the DG normally by local network inhibition via the connections young neurons make with GABAergic interneurons. Our data also suggest, remarkably, that adult-born neurons reduce the effects of the convulsants kainic acid and pilocarpine and reduce chronic seizures in a mouse model of TLE. However, in the epileptic adult neurogenesis increases greatly and many GCs are abnormal. These aberrant adult-born GCs appear to facilitate seizures rather than inhibit them. We suggest that adult neurogenesis has diverse roles: in the normal brain, adult-born neurons of the DG are promote cognitive functions and are protective, whereas in TLE, abnormalities that arise in adult-born neurons contribute to the pathophysiology of the disease, and facilitate seizures.

Helen Scharfman received her BA in Biopsychology from Vassar College in 1981 and her PhD in Pharmacology from the Uniformed Services University in 1986. Her dissertation established the effects of GABA on pyramidal cells and interneurons of rata visual cortical slices using single cell electrophysiology. Her postdoctoral training was at the University of Washington in Seattle where she developed an interest in epilepsy in the Department of Neurological Surgery under the mentorship of Phillip Schwartzkroin. She then was a Research Associate at the Howard Huges Medical Institute under supervision of Paul Adams and S. Murray Sherman at the University of Stony Brook before being appointed as Assistant Professor at Columbia University in the Departments of Pharmacology and Neurology. In 2007 she moved to the Nathan Kline Institute of Psychiatric Research and New York University Langone Health where she is currently Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Neuroscience & Physiology and (Adult) Psychiatry and a Research Scientist VII in New York State, Office of Mental Health.  
 

To learn more about the Cognitive Neuroscience of Development and Aging (CoNDA) Center [P20GM130447], click here. For more information, contact Kendall Panas (kpanas@unmc.edu).