Hi, I am looking for data sources and/or references that describe brain mass increases in mammals with age. For context, I recently read a paper that shows captive mink brain mass peaks at approximately 3 months of age; i.e., the brain mass of the adult is less than that of a 3-month old. I want to know how common this brain mass growth pattern is, so I am searching for other references and sources for comparisons. Thank you all in advance.
Dear Dr. LaPoint,
the decrease of brain weight during postnatal ontogenesis in mink (both ranch as well as wild) and some other Mustela species is quite unnormal. But similar results were deschribed for certain insectivor species by Dehnel in 1949 and since than this was called the Dehnel-phenomenon. This process is connected with a flattening of the skull and as far as I assume a consequence of water loss in palearktic regions before winter time. I described also postnatal brain mass change in racoons. See my papers and the literature citations therein. There are very many studies of earlier times that describe brain growth in many species.
Good luck with your research- I am open for further contact but will be on tour until Oct. 5th. All the best
Dieter Kruska (Prof. em.)
Hello,
Please check the following article:
1Brain Development Cooperative Group.Total and regional brain volumes in a population-based normative sample from 4 to 18 years: the NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development.Cereb Cortex. 2012 Jan;22(1):1-12. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhr018. Epub 2011 May 25.
(Key observations are: 1) age-related decreases in lobar GM most prominent in parietal and occipital cortex; 2) age-related increases in lobar WM, greatest in occipital, followed by the temporal lobe; 3) age-related trajectories predominantly curvilinear in females, but linear in males; and 4) small systematic associations of brain tissue volumes with BMI but not with IQ, family income, or parental education. These findings constitute a normative reference on regional brain volumes in children and adolescents.)
Kind regard,
Tatyana
Human data:
Kretschmann, H.-J., Kammradt, G., Krauthausen, I., Lange, H.W., Sauer, B., Wingert, F.
Growth of Brain Regions in Man.
Abstr., XI Congresso Internat. De Anatomia, Mexico, Aug. 17. - 23. 1980
Lange, H.W., Krauthausen, I., Sauer, B., Kammradt, G.
Quantitative Analysis of the Ontogenesis of Telencephalon, Diencephalon, Mesencephalon, Rhombencephalon, and Cerebellum in Man.
Abstr., XI Congresso Internat. De Anatomia, Mexico, Aug. 17. - 23. 1980
Lange, H.W., Krauthausen, I.,
Ontogenesis of the Area gigantopyramidalis of Man. A Quantitative Analysis of Its Growth in Volume.
The 6th European Anatomical Congress, Hamburg, 28.9.-2.10.1981
Acta Anatomica 111/1-2: 83 (1981)
An old classic book which includes information on humans is: The Human Brain in Figures and Tables, By, Samuil M. Blinkov and Il'ya Glezer, Translated from the Russian by Basil Haigh. Basic Books, Inc Publishers Plenum Press,1968. What is also good about this book, is that is goes over the different methods of quantitative analysis.This might be helpful when you review the above very interesting papers.
Thank you all for your input. Like Prof. Kruska, I'm finding an apparent size overshoot in Mustela nivalis skulls. It's remarkable. I've only found other examples in mustelids, and so I am looking for some papers/books that show how "unusual" these overshoots are. Thank you all for your suggestions! I think I'll be contacting Prof. Kruska soon...
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