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Baby's Brain
The Secret Life of the Brain
By Richard Restak, M.D.
d genitals; the ectoderm forms the skin and the brain, along with the rest of the nervous system.
The future brain and nervous system first become apparent at about four weeks, when a portion of the outer ectoderm thickens to form a spoon-shaped structure only one cell thick known as the neural plate. A groove known as the neural groove runs the length of the neural plate, dividing it into right and left halves.
Even at this early stage of development the future brain possesses three defining characteristics. It is polarized (the head end is wider than the remainder of the neural plate), bilaterally symmetrical (divided into right and left halves separated by the neural groove), and regionalized (the wide end of the spoon will become the brain, while the narrow end will develop into the spinal cord).
Next, the two sides of the neural plate fuse to form a tube from which emerge three swellings: The forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. Over the ensuing months in the womb these three swellings enlarge, bend and expand to form the major divisions of the adult nervous system; from top down the cerebrum, the midbrain, the thalamus and hypothalamus, the cerebellum and the spinal cord.
Scientists who study the brain during its earliest period marvel at the clockwork precision by which the genes issue instructions for growth and development. But even as it begins to form, the brain remains highly dynamic. And the environment of the embryo plays a crucial role in how the brain will finally turn out.
According to neuroscientist Mary Beth Hatten, a development biologist at Rockefeller University in New York, "The embryo itself provides the
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