Baby Brain Development:
Your developing baby’s brain developed at an incredible rate during your pregnancy. At four weeks in utero, his brain isn’t much bigger than a grain of salt, and at seven weeks, it barely measures 1 / 4 inch. But fast-forward to the ultimate trimester and your developing baby’s brain has increased in size by 260 percent! Most of this growth is often attributed to the rapid formation, growth, and proliferation of brain cells. the kid is born with 100 billion neurons/ brain cells forming connections with each other and creating an elaborate messaging network that scientists consider the most complex biological system within the world. Here’s a deeper look at brain development that you simply can’t see but can appreciate.
Cognitive Abilities
Your developing baby’s brain development begins during the third week of your pregnancy when rapidly multiplying cells form what’s called the neural plate. This structure of the brain eventually folds in on itself to become the neural tube, which later gives rise to the forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord. As early as the fifth week after conception, neurons—the information-processing cells that pass signals throughout the central nervous system—begin to make, divide, and multiply in these regions of your developing baby’s brain.
The most active and effective period of neurons takes place during the middle of the 2nd trimester when 250,000 neurons are created every minute. The neurons migrate to different regions of your developing baby’s brain, where they combat specific roles, like interpreting sounds and storing memories, and form connections with other neurons.
During this point of heightened activity, the cerebral cortex—the area related to the brain’s higher functions, like language and abstract thought—grows sooner than the brain’s other structures. By the seventh month of your pregnancy, it houses 70 % of the neurons in your developing baby’s brain.
By the eighth, the auditory area, the visual area, and Broca’s area (a region of the brain related to producing speech) begin to function, lending your developing baby a primitive ability to interpret sights and sounds and to differentiate language.
Motor
Your child is equipped for physical survival. Their brains and nerves are developed to the purpose that they will control basic reflexes and vital functions like breathing, swallowing and sleeping. As you may have noticed, physical reflexes and movement begin to develop during early pregnancy when your developing baby becomes capable of reacting to stimuli by moving his arms and kicking his legs. within the seventh month, a process called myelination begins during which a dense, fat-based substance forms along with the connections between neurons, allowing signals to pass between them with increasing speed. Among the first neurons to undergo myelination are those located within the brain regions liable for motor development—the brain stem and spinal cord—and they’ll be the foremost fully developed by then.
Interestingly, even while your developing baby is within the womb, external stimuli can play a big role in the development of his reflexes. By week sixteen, developing ears allow your unborn child to detect (though not interpret) sound. And by week 25, your unborn child is probably going to reply to sounds outside the womb, like music or your voice, by kicking or traveling. With each kick and movement, certain neurons are exercised, which inspires them to make even more connections. That, in turn, strengthens overall motor function and gradually allows for the more coordinated, complex, and movements you’ll see during your child’s early years.