changes in learning and memory seen in the studies mentioned previously are thought to be related to the role of adult neurogenesis in regulating pattern separation. Pattern separation is defined as, "a process to remove redundancy from similar inputs so that events can be separated from each other and interference can be reduced, and in addition can produce a more orthogonal, sparse, and categorized set of outputs." This impairment in pattern separation could explain the impairments seen in other learning and memory tasks. A decreased ability in reducing interference could lead to greater difficulty in forming and retaining new memories., although it's hard to discriminate between effects of neurogenesis in learning and pattern separation due to limitations in the interpretation behavioral results." Studies show that rats with inhibited adult neurogenesis demonstrate difficulty in differentiating and learning contextualized fear conditioning. Rats with blocked adult neurogenesis also show impaired differential freezing when they are required to differentiate between similar contexts. This also affects their spatial recognition in radial arm maze tests when the arms are closer together rather than when they are further apart. A meta-analysis of behavioral studies evaluating the effect of neurogenesis in different pattern separation tests has shown a consistent effect of neurogenesis ablation on performance, although there are exceptions in the literature. " Effects on behavioral inhibition Behavioral inhibition is important in rats and other animals in halting whatever they are currently doing in order to reassess a situation in response to a threat or anything else that may require their attention. Rats with lesioned hippocampi show less behavioral inhibition when exposed to threats, such as cat odor. The disruption of normal cell proliferation and development of the dentate gyrus in developing rats also impairs their freezing response, which is an example of behavior inhibition, when exposed to an unfamiliar adult male rat. This impairment in behavioral inhibition also ties into the process of learning and memory, as repressing wrong answers or behaviors requires the ability to inhibit that response. Implications Role in learning The functional relevance of adult neurogenesis is uncertain, but there is some evidence that hippocampal adult neurogenesis is important for learning and memory. Multiple mechanisms for the relationship between increased neurogenesis and improved cognition have been suggested, including computational theories to demonstrate that new neurons increase memory capacity, reduce interference between memories, or add information about time to memories. Given that the rate of