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I'm not sure this is either correct or useful. Doubtless new synapses form at higher rates in young animals, but many of these rapidly disappear again. I think the total number slowly increases up to the end of puberty. Also, the numbers change at different times in different cortical areas. For example according to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3583840
synapses in striate cortex peak at 8 months and then slowly fall by only 40% in the next 10 years, then remain stable. In frontal cortex (http://www.jsmf.org/about/j/neural_connections.htm), the peak density is reached at 3.5 years. Note that though there is a decline in density, the volume of the cortex increases up to 7 years, so the total number may not change much.
There is a rather rapid increase in synapse number during the months before and immediately after birth, but this is not surprising: new cortical neurons are being formed!
Paulhummerman (talk) 20:47, 13 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
There is not really anybody actively maintaining this article at the moment, so please feel free to fix any problems that you spot. If I can be helpful please let me know. Regards, Looie496 (talk) 04:07, 14 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
