Editorial: Adult neurogenesis as a regenerative strategy for brain repair

Adult neurogenesis represents a striking example of neural plasticity throughout life where adult-born neurons are continuously generated from neural stem cells (NSCs). The hippocampus is a neurogenic niche where postnatal neurogenesis occurs, where the role of neurogenesis in this brain region is to maintain healthy hippocampal function, such as learning and memory across the lifespan (Clelland et al., 2009; Sahay et al., 2011; Christian et al., 2014). Impaired adult hippocampal neurogenesis is observed in a variety of neurological, neuropsychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders and underlies the cognitive impairments associated with these disorders (Hussaini et al., 2014; Cho et al., 2015; Moreno-Jimenez et al., 2019). Therefore, a better fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that regulate adult hippocampal neurogenesis will identify disease pathologies driving cognitive impairment and provide an avenue to help design effective therapeutic strategies. This Research Topic aims to explore mechanistic evidence involved in adult neurogenesis in the healthy and pathological brain as well as discuss recent technical advances investigating adult neurogenesis.