<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="@@PLUGINFILE@@/developmental-eeg.png" alt="Pre-Natal" width="1187" height="1000" class="img-responsive atto_image_button_text-bottom"><br></p>
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<p>At the point of conception, the strategy of the nervous system is coded in the genes, and the brain follows a pre-defined blueprint. The initial connectome of the brain, which comes into being very early in development, is largely a product of genes and
    randomness.</p>
<p>At 4 weeks, the first brain cells, the neurons, are establishing at 500,000 per minute. These cells will never turn over, unlike the skin. Neurons born in fetal life function all the way into old age. Within the first 13 weeks of life the reptilian structures
    of the brain are fully formed (the brainstem, spinal cord, cerebellum, and pons). The first stage of wiring is when fundamental networks form via an odyssey of the neurons, which grab onto glia, to form long fibrous white mater tracks that build the
    resting state networks in the brain. These are the gross networks of the brain. Low frequency oscillations (i.e., delta and theta) help to coordinate long-range communications that run on these networks, between lobes of the brain (von Stein, Chiang,
    &amp; Konig, 2000). Similar to a musical instrument, the longer the string, the lower the pitch (Kung, 2013). These long connections are architecturally fundamental for the brain’s development.&nbsp;</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="@@PLUGINFILE@@/fetal-development.png" alt="Fetal Development" width="673" height="707" class="img-responsive atto_image_button_text-bottom"><br></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Figure : Fetal Development</p>
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<p style="text-align: left; ">By
24 weeks, the vital organs of the fetus are well formed, the lungs
are prepared to fill with air and the brain has billions of neurons,
building 2 million connections every second, until the brain has
become a network of trillions of criss-crossing wires with more
connections than stars in the sky.In this second phase of
development, connections that will remain as integral are made, as
are less important connections. When a connection is built and
strengthened, it is reinforced and made to stay, while the less
important connections atrophy and are lost—this is called pruning.
Disruption here, within the earliest steps of development, during the
creation and migration of neurons, is expected to cause abnormalities
that are easy to see, such as microcephaly and lissencephaly, if the
fetus survives. <br></p><p style="text-align: left; "><br></p><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="@@PLUGINFILE@@/lissencaphaly-gyri-sulci.png" alt="Lissencaphaly, where the brain does not form gyri and sulci, but is smooth, occurs between 12 – 24 weeks of life." width="461" height="307" class="img-responsive atto_image_button_middle"><br></p><p style="text-align: center;">Figure : Lissencaphaly, where the brain does not <br>form gyri and sulci, but is smooth, occurs between 12 – 24 weeks of life.<br></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br></p><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="@@PLUGINFILE@@/microcephaly-infant-skull.png" alt="Microcephaly versus a Normal Sized Infant Skull" width="819" height="472" class="img-responsive atto_image_button_middle"><br></p><p style="text-align: center;">Figure : Microcephaly versus a Normal Sized Infant Skull<br></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br></p>