Proliferation of neurons in early development by division of precursor cells, and in which larger motoneurons are established before smaller sensory neurons. Neurogenesis is essentially complete in most parts of the brain by 30 weeks gestation in the human, but with some exceptions such as the cerebellum, dentate gyrus, and hippocampus. Following an ‘inside-out, outside-last’ pattern of development, older phylogenetic areas develop before more recently evolved ones as, for example, in comparing the ventral thalamus with the later emerging dorsal thalamus.
See Cell migration, Cerebellum (development), Cerebral cortex (or pallium), Hippocampus, Infantile amnesis, Motoneuron, Neuroblasts, Proliferative ventricular zone, Thalamus