While most neurodevelopmental events involve the proliferation
of neural elements, two important processes involve
substantial loss of neural elements. These two processes
include naturally occurring cell death, which involves the
normal loss of 50% or more of the neurons within a brain
region; and synaptic exuberance and pruning in which there
is massive excess production of connections followed by
the systematic elimination of up to 50% of those connections.
Both of these processes reflect nonpathological
events that play an essential role in establishing the
complex networks of the developing brain. The timescales
of these two sets of events are different. Most naturally
occurring cell death in neuronal populations occurs prenatally,
while both cell death in glia populations and the events
involving exuberant production and pruning of connections
are largely postnatal events. This section will consider cell
death in neural populations during the prenatal period. The
major postnatal regressive events will be discussed in the next
section.