Table 2.

Summary of key developmental processes across comparable ages in humans and rodents.

Human	Rodent	Developmental milestones	Reference (s)
23–32 wk gestation (pre-term infant)	pnd 1–3	Oligodendrocyte maturation state changes—pre-dominance of mitotically active pre-OLsa.	Craig et al. (2003), Lodygensky et al. (2010), Dean et al., 2011a and Dean et al., 2011b
		Immune system development.	Holsapple et al. (2003)
		Establishment of the blood-brain barrier.	Engelhardt (2003), Daneman et al. (2010)
36–40 wk gestation (term infant)	pnd 7– 10	Peak brain growth spurt.	Dobbing and Sands (1979), Bockhorst et al. (2008)
		Peak in gliogenesis.	Catalani et al. (2002), Kriegstein and Alvarez-Buylla (2009)
		Increasing axonal and dendritic density.	Cowan (1979), Bockhorst et al. (2008), Baloch et al. (2009)
		Oligodendrocyte maturation state changes–switch to a pre-dominance of immature OLs.	Craig et al. (2003), Dean et al., 2011a and Dean et al., 2011b
		Consolidation of the immune system.	Holsapple et al. (2003)
2–3 year old	pnd 20– 21	Brain reaches 90–95% of adult weight.	Dobbing and Sands, 1973 and Dobbing and Sands, 1979, Dekaban et al. (1987), Giedd et al. (1999)
		Peak in synaptic density at 50% > adult levels.	Huttenlocher (1979), Micheva and Beaulieu (1996)
		Peak in myelination rate.	Keshavan et al. (2002)
		Neurotransmitter and receptor changes.	Hedner et al. (1986), Romijn et al. (1991)
4–11 year old	pnd 25– 35	Fractionation/specialization of prefrontal cortex neural networks (structural maturation).	Tsujimoto (2008)
		Maximum volume of grey matter and cortical thickness.	Sowell et al. (1999), Bansal et al. (2008)