Page "Brain" Paragraph 29

All vertebrate brains share a common underlying form, which appears most clearly during early stages of embryonic development.

In its earliest form, the brain appears as three swellings at the front end of the neural tube ; these swellings eventually become the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain ( the prosencephalon, mesencephalon, and rhombencephalon, respectively ).

At the earliest stages of brain development, the three areas are roughly equal in size.

In many classes of vertebrates, such as fish and amphibians, the three parts remain similar in size in the adult, but in mammals the forebrain becomes much larger than the other parts, and the midbrain becomes very small.