Rostral migratory stream



The rostral migratory stream (RMS) or rostral migratory pathway is a pathway, found in the brain of some animals, along which neuronal precursors that originated in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the brain migrate to reach the main olfactory bulb, where they differentiate into interneurons. Neurogenesis has been shown to occur in the SVZ into adulthood (it was previously thought that neurons could not regenerate in the adult brain).

The rostral migratory stream was named and discovered by J. Altman in 1969 using 3H-thymidine autoradiography in the rat brain. He was able to trace the migration of labeled cells from the subventricular zone into the main olfactory bulb. He also did some quantitative studies of the changing size of the rostral migratory stream in younger to older rats.