Table 1.

Comparative development of the cortex between laboratory rodents and humans using various criteria.

Parameters	Rodents	Humans	Reference
Maximal growth velocity	8–12 Postnatal days	2–3 Postnatal months	Gottlieb et al. (1977), Herschkowitz et al. (1997), Khazipov et al. (2001), Kretschmann et al. (1986)
Neurogenesis
Birth	Mouse: E11–13 Rat: E12–15	GW5–6	Al-Ghoul and Miller (1989), Bayer et al. (1993), Del Rio et al. (2000), Kostovic and Rakic (1990), Price et al. (1997), Wood et al. (1992), Zeng et al. (2009)
Waiting	Mouse: E14–P0 Rat: E16–17	GW20–26	Catalano et al. (1991), Del Rio et al. (2000), Deng and Elberger (2003), Hevner (2000), Kostovic and Judas (2002)
Death (0–80%)	Mouse: E18-P21 Rat: E20–P30	GW34–41	Al-Ghoul and Miller (1989), Ferrer et al. (1990), Kostovic and Rakic (1990), Price et al. (1997), Wood et al. (1992)
Neuronal migration	Rats: mainly observed between E19 and E21 Mice: the preplate (PP) appears at E12. At E14, the intermediate zone is traversed by migrating neurons en route to the cortical plate (CP). At E16, the normal CP increases in thickness following the arrival of young neurons	This telencephalic – diencephalic migration occurs between 18 and 36 weeks PMA but mostly before 20 weeks of gestation	Bar et al. (2000), Gupta et al. (2005), Letinic and Kostovic (1997), Letinic and Rakic (2001), Raedler et al. (1980)
Synaptogenesis
Duration of synaptogenesis	Rats: synaptogenesis continues for the first 3 weeks postnatally, peaking in the first 2 weeks	Synaptogenesis continues until approximately 3.5 years of age; the last structure to undergo synaptogenesis is the prefrontal cortex	Levitt (2003), Zagon and McLaughlin (1977)
First synapses	Rats: thalamocortical E17	Found at 9-10 weeks PMA in the cerebral cortex	Molliver et al. (1973), Zecevic et al. (1989)
Synaptic density and function	Rats: connections increase in neo-cortex from E16 to E21 Mice: P5-P6, 20% of fast-spiking neurons were electrically coupled; P15-P18, 42% of FS pairs had established electrical synapses	Synaptic density steadily increases with a rate of about 4% per week till 24-26 weeks PMA. Second increase of synaptic formation resulting in a 6-fold increase from 28 weeks PMA till the age at which the peak in synaptic density occurs	Huttenlocher and Dabholkar (1997), Kostovic and Jovanov-Milosevic (2006), Pangratz-Fuehrer and Hestrin (2011), Schlumpf et al. (1980), Zecevic (1998)