It's been thought that the neurons were already created before birth, but research indicates that the brain keeps growing until mid to late childhood, decreases through the early 20s, stabilizes for quite a while, and then begins to decrease further from age 40 onwards.

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...

We might have this idea that our brains change the same way but scientists have observed that there is a considerable variation between individuals in terms of when and what to extent aspects of the brain change.

Individual differences in brain development can be related to psychological d...

• Neurogenesis is the process by which new neurons are created. The bulk of this process happens during the prenatal period of brain development.
• Synaptogenesis is the process of forming connections or synapses.
• Synaptic pruning