Table 3.

Naked mole-rat brain ontogenesis more closely resembles humans than mice.

Human variable	Mice	NMRs
Brain growth spurt predominantly in utero; 33% of adult size at birth Dobbing and Sands, 1979.	Brain growth spurt occurs postnatally (day 7); 16.9% adult size at birth Kobayashi, 1963; Watson et al., 2006.	Brain growth spurt predominantly in utero; 41.1% adult size at birth (Figure 1, Table 2).
Dentate gyrus development occurs predominantly in utero (~80%) Mathern et al., 1996, 2002.	Majority of dentate gyrus development occurs postnatally (80%) Schlessinger et al., 1975; Altman and Bayer, 1990; Diamond, 1990.	Dentate gyrus development predominantly in utero. Low postnatal DG neurogenesis (Figure 3).
Myelination begins in utero Brody et al., 1987.	Myelination begins postnatally (day 7) Jacobson, 1963.	Myelination begins in utero. Obvious myelination at birth (Figure 7).
Adult tau expression of 3R tau Goedert et al., 1989a; Kosik et al., 1989; Ksiezak-Reding et al., 1992; Köpke et al., 1993.	Low 3R tau expression in adults; restricted to neurogenic niche Kosik et al., 1989; Bullmann et al., 2007.	Adult 3R tau expression. Appreciable 3R expression in adult cerebrum. (Figure 5).