The hippocampus is tactically situated in the brain such that it has reciprocal connections to several other regions involved in emotional behaviors, such as stress responses and positive and negative reinforcement. Alterations in these emotional behaviors can be considered as precursors for development of neuropsychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression, and addiction. Adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus is a new undisputed form of spontaneous plasticity, and most of the emotional behaviors implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders are known to inhibit DG neurogenesis.

Therefore, the normalization of impaired DG neurogenesis during recovery or abstinence may be required to initiate normal neuroplasticity in the hippocampus which could be critical for recovery.

We particularly take an interest in manuscripts that report on correlations between neuropsychiatric-related traits and adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Reviews or original papers that focus on demonstrating a role for hippocampal neurogenesis in recovery or etiology of neuropsychiatric disorders in human or animal models are welcome. Moreover, papers demonstrating reversal of impaired neurogenesis and emotional behaviors by therapeutic interventions such as antidepressants, physical activity, or enriched environment would be of great interest. In the context of the above topics, importance will be also given to manuscripts and reviews that report advances in methodological details for analysis of DG neurogenesis. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Novel methods of detecting DG neurogenesis in preclinical and clinical models:
  • Immunohistochemical methods to detect developmental stages of neurogenesis
  • Transgenic models for visualization of neurogenesis
  • Novel tools developed to measure levels of neurogenesis in vivo and ex vivo
  • Methods for knocking-down neurogenesis
• Molecular and epigenetic mechanisms regulating DG neurogenesis
• Adult neurogenesis and the plasticity of the DG network
  • Functional studies on integration of adult-born neurons
  • Computational theories
• Novel stimuli (with specific focus on neuropsychiatric disorders) that regulate DG neurogenesis
  • Addictive disorders
  • Affective disorders
  • Therapeutic interventions
• A critical evaluation of the role of DG neurogenesis in neuropsychiatric disorders
  • Limitations
  • Future approaches

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