• Question: how many brain cells are you born with

    Asked by 822thaf37 to Christie, Dan, David, Dawn, Sian on 20 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Christie Waddington

      Christie Waddington answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      Believe it or not, at birth a baby has about all the neurons it will ever have (approximately 100 billion throughout out brain and spinal cord). There are some parts of the brain that add new brain cells (neurons) such as the cerebellum (movement), olfactory bulb (smell), prefrontal cortex (decisions) and hippocampus (learning and memory). Neurogenesis (making of new brain cells) stops at age 2 in all these regions except the hippocampus. In the hippocampus, new brain cells are made throughout your lifetime as we learn new things and gain new memories.

    • Photo: Dawn Lau

      Dawn Lau answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      Your brain is actually made up of several types of cells, neurons, and non-neuronal cells. When people say brain cell they probably mean a neuron (aka nerve cell), which is the type of cell that transmits information from one cell to another to control your brain. The most popular number that gets passed around is 100 billion neurons, however, some recent studies have narrowed it down to about 86 billion neurons in your brain. This is the number you are born with.

      But! Did you know that we have just as many non-neuronal cells (also called glia) in our brain? These cells are the support cells of the nervous system, they help your neurons grow and communicate with each other. I don’t know of the exact number you are born with, but new glia stop growing a few years after birth so you are left with an approximately 1:1 ratio of neurons : glia.

    • Photo: Sian Thomas

      Sian Thomas answered on 21 Jun 2016:

      Interesting learning here too. Wondering how I seem to know so little!

Comments