Synaptic pruning in development: a novel account in neural terms
A fundamental phenomenon in brain development is the reduction in the amount of synapses that occurs between early childhood and puberty. Recent studies in humans, substantiated by studies in monkeys 1,2, show that synaptic density grows steadily until the age of 2 years, remains constant for a few years and then decreases continuously until puberty3,4. The peak level of synaptic density in early childhood is up to 50% to 100% higher than the adult level depending on the brain region.