Apoptosis

Apoptosis can affect essential synapses both in the womb and in the child’s early life or even in the adult. Neural pruning or controlled nerve cell death crus naturally in the developing brain allowing it to adjust to its changing envoirement and become more efficient by discarding synapses it does not need. 

And during the prenatal period, up to a quarter a million new cells form every minute, making 1.8 million connections per second, though about half of the cells will later wither and die (apoptosis) leaving those reinforced by us.

Throughout most of your body, including inside your brain, your immune system reigns supreme. Your brain takes potentially constructive and destructive immune system related molecules and puts them to work as architects, fine-tuning networks or neurons and adding wanted or removing any unwanted connections. 

Your brain constantly updates its connections, adding branches as you learn a skill or making new memories and cutting back those that it does not need. Without this constant trimming, the brain risks becoming confused, which is called ‘’sensory overwhelm’’ by competing information and crossed wires. It is the microglial cells in the brain that engulf old synapses. The loss of to many synapses from en excess of C1q, the destructive immune system related molecules, can result in Alzhemeir’s or schizophrenia in the adult and schizophrenia or autism in children. The mothers immune system response can also impact the developing brain.