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Genetic expression behind the development of our brains is most active before birth, in the early months of pregnancy, and during our teenage years, scientists have found.
There is a quieter intervening "movement" in the three-part "symphony" of human brain development, but one that is more sensitive to environmental factors, say the researchers publishing in the journal Neuron.
The initial surge of brain-developing genetic expression takes place during the first two-thirds of our gestation in the uterus, says the team led from the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT.
The middle intermission then lasts from the final trimester of pregnancy until adolescence, at which point the genetic activity surges again for the final phase of our brain's development.
These two most active spurts relevant to human brain power, found to sandwich the childhood years, involve the development of the cerebral neocortex:
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Genetic brain development 'peaks before birth and in adolescence'