Stages of Early Brain Development

Brain development happens at different rates for different parts of the brain but here are the major trends in the construction that takes place:

• In the womb: folding of the brain's outer layer
• Newborn - childhood: the brain grows gradually and continues to develop white matter pathways and maturity of movement and sensation
• Adolescence: gray matter thins out; synapses scale back, and susceptibility to outside influence heightens
• Early adulthood: the prefrontal cortex is still developing.