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Connect or die?
The embryo produces many more neurons than it needs to ensure that all possible connections can be established and there will never be too few. The neurons that get to the right place and successfully make connections survive. Once an area of the brain has enough connections, any others growing towards the same point will die by switching on a 'cell suicide program' – apoptosis.
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Only those neurons that make the right connections survive - the rest will die through apoptosis.
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