• Question: Does every baby have the same amount of brain cells?

    Asked by lilsimmo to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 17 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Ooh @lilsimmo, good question.
      I don’t know the answer, I would guess that they probably don’t, but that the number wouldn’t vary too much.

      Would you like to count them? 😉

    • Photo: Tim Fosker

      Tim Fosker answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Hi @lilsimmo

      What a great question. I agree with @Suzi, the exact number is likely to vary. Calculations of the number of neurons that make up the brain are only ever estimates from very small sections of the brain and knowledge of how the density of different types of cells vary in the brain (some parts of the brain have more of one type of cell than another).

      Babies start losing brain cells very soon after they are born, but this is a good thing as it results in the brain developing specialised connections for important behaviours. That means that even if the number of brain cells two babies had weren’t different at birth, they would be very soon after birth, based on the different things they were exposed to.

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