[Growth of the caudate nucleus during postnatal ontogeny in the dog, rat and guinea pig]

Abstract

The development of one of the largest nuclei in the basal ganglia -- the caudate nucleus -- in the dog, rat and guinea pig continues after birth. The growth processes of the neural cell bodies in the caudate nucleus coinside with the development of the animal's movement performed by itself and are most intensive up to the ontogenetic stage, when in all three species the brain mass is equal to 60% of the brain mass in a mature animal. An indirect index demonstrating the dendritic network development -- the density of the neurons arrangement -- becomes equal to the value specific for a mature animal much later in the postnatal ontogenesis even in a full-term born guinea pig. The postponed morphological maturation of the structure can be considered as an evidence of a certain connection of the structure in question not only with motor activity, but with inhibition, as well.