Brain development

FROM A SINGLE CELL TO AN INCREDIBLY INTRICATE NETWORK IN JUST NINE MONTHS.

Within weeks of fertilisation, neural progenitors start to form; these stem cells will go on to become all of the cells of the central nervous system. They organise into a neural tube when the embryo is barely the size of a pen tip, and then patterning begins, laying out the structural organisation of the brain and spinal cord. At its peak growth rate, the developing brain can generate 250,000 new neurons every minute. By the time a baby is born, the process still isn’t complete. But by the age of two, the brain is 80% of its adult size.

Pyramidal neurons, like these, are found in the hippocampus, cortex and amygdala.