Brain Development Flashcards
What is morphogenesis?
biological processes that causes a cell, tissue or organism to develop it’s shape
Prenatal development of the brain
fertilisation
germinal (1st stage of prenatal development)
Embryonic
Fetal
Birth
What is 1 characteristic of the early brain?
a tube
known as neural tube
What is the Prosencephalon?
front part of the brain
forebrain
What is the Mesencephalon?
midbrain
What is the Rhombencephalon?
hindbrain
Neural development develops in these stages…
- cell proliferation
- cell migration
- cell differentiation
- programmed cell death (apoptosis)
- synaptic elimination / rearrangement
What is cell proliferation?
massive production of cells through cell growth and division (2-4m of gestation)
continues until birth
What is cell migration?
Immature neurons migrate to reach target layer (this creates layers of cortex)
new created cells travel through embryonic brain through ‘ladder’
What is cell differentiation?
all neurons comes from precursor cells (undifferentiated cells)
when they migrate, they also differentiate
neural progenitor becomes neuron
glial progenitor becomes glia
What happens to the axon as cells differentiate?
axons extend to find appropriate target
top of axon is guided by special proteins which are repulsed by others until they find neurons to connect with
What is apoptosis?
programmed cell death
discarded neurons that didn’t connect with others
input neurons find target neurons and some miss target so slowly disappear
What is synaptic elimination?
eliminate synapses (wires) that don’t receive signal
crazy wiring = not efficient
What is vision like in infants?
immature
(at 6 months perception is blurry)
only see world in 2 dimension
What is face perception like In infants?
infants have slower timing than adults but eletrical pattern when processing visual stimuli is the same