Brain development functional connections

Glutamate also has a unique function in brain development. When you were very young, the neurons in your brain developed many connections, or synapses, with other neurons to optimize your ability to learn a great deal of information quickly, such as how to move your hands and feet, what your mother s voice sounds like, or what the color red looks like. But as you grew older (during adolescence), your brain became a bit... 

It has been estimated that there are several billion neurons that comprise the mammalian brain which, together with their surrounding glial cells, form a unique network of connections which are ultimately responsible for aU thoughts and actions. While the glial cells may play a critical role in brain development, their main function in the mature brain is to maintain the structure and metabolic homeostasis of the neurons which they surround. 

With the development of the human brain, a functional network with over 100 billion interrelated nerve cells and 1010 bit capacity arose. With this system, whose operation is inseparably connected to conscious perception, life on earth reached its most sophisticated form. Furthermore, the human being, who is primarily a social creature, is a building block in the creation of a gigantic product human society. The function and capacity of society obviously exceeds the sum of the activity of its members. Based on the practically inexhaustible capacity of the human brain to acquire drives, human society represents a qualitatively new, higher form of life. For example, a country, presently the most sophisticated form of a human community, consists of millions or even over a billion humans and operates de facto as a huge living complex interacting with other similar entities, about 200 at present. 

A related development is the tremendous expansion of neuroscience. Thyroid hormones occupy a central place in brain development. It seems pertinent to bring the neurobiological effects of thyroid hormone disorder to the attention of the neuroscience community, especially as hypothyroidism affects nerve cell growth and connectivity, neurotransmitter levels, membrane functions, and other areas of neurobiology. 

Alternatively, the area of the brain that is damaged by a toxic substance may be one in which the functions mediated by this area become apparent only later in development, or it could be one in which connections go from a damaged area to a later-developing area (Lyon and Gadisseux, 1991 Weiss, 1995). In these cases, the consequences of early exposure to toxic substances could occur only after snfficient time has elapsed for the brain-mediated function to appear in a normal developmental sequence. For example, early damage to areas of the brain associated with motor control may not be seen until that time period when infants would be expected to acquire voluntary movement sequences (Lyon and Gaddisseux, 1991). 

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