Human brain size changes little over the child and teen years. Nonetheless, considerable cellular and functional change occurs. These maturational changes result in an adult functioning brain and are subject to developmental influence. The images above serve to illustrate this. Figure A shows that at birth, cellular elements are still entering the cortex. By midchildhood, more neurons and more cellular processes are established than in adult years. The developmental task of childhood years from an anatomic point of view is to prune and to select the most useful (perhaps the most used) neurons, synapses, and dendrites to preserve for the adult brain. This process of pruning continues through the early teen years. Presumably, the pruning is accomplished "wisely." This would mean that synapses that are most important to survival and optimal function flourish whereas useless connections vanish.