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Latest comment: 12 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion
I'm not sure this is either correct or useful. Doubtless new synapses form at higher rates in young animals, but many of these rapidly disappear again. I think the total number slowly increases up to the end of puberty. Also, the numbers change at different times in different cortical areas. For example according to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3583840
synapses in striate cortex peak at 8 months and then slowly fall by only 40% in the next 10 years, then remain stable. In frontal cortex (http://www.jsmf.org/about/j/neural_connections.htm), the peak density is reached at 3.5 years. Note that though there is a decline in density, the volume of the cortex increases up to 7 years, so the total number may not change much.
There is a rather rapid increase in synapse number during the months before and immediately after birth, but this is not surprising: new cortical neurons are being formed!
Paulhummerman (talk) 20:47, 13 January 2012 (UTC)Reply
There is not really anybody actively maintaining this article at the moment, so please feel free to fix any problems that you spot. If I can be helpful please let me know. Regards, Looie496 (talk) 04:07, 14 January 2012 (UTC)Reply
