<p><span>The continuous addition of new dentate granule cells, exquisitely regulated by brain activity, renders the hippocampus plastic. However, how neural circuits encode experiences to impact the addition of adult-born neurons remains unknown. Here, we used endoscopic Ca</span>²⁺<span> imaging to track the real-time activity of individual dentate granule cells in freely-behaving mice. For the first time, we found that active dentate granule cells responded to a novel experience by preferentially increasing their Ca</span>²⁺<span> event frequency. This elevated activity, which we found to be associated with object exploration, returned to baseline by one hour in the same environment, but could be dishabituated via introduction to a novel environment. To seamlessly transition between environments, we next established a freely-controllable virtual reality system for unrestrained mice. We again observed increased firing of active neurons in a virtual enriched environment. Interestingly, multiple novel virtual experiences accumulatively increased the number of newborn neurons when compared to a single experience. Finally, optogenetic silencing of existing dentate granule cells during novel environmental exploration perturbed experience-induced neuronal addition. Together, our study shows that the adult brain conveys novel, enriched experiences to increase the addition of adult-born hippocampal neurons by increasing the firing of active dentate granule cells.</span></p>