IUBio

Size of brain and size of skull

Dave L dave at lud-low.freeserve.co.uk
Sat May 29 20:44:39 EST 1999


On 28 May 1999 12:56:40 GMT, didier at Glue.umd.edu (Didier A. Depireux)
wrote:

... snipped ...
> What I find
>surprising is that bone growth (the calvarium) should be _regulated_ in any
>way by the growth of a soft tissue like the brain. 
>
>						Didier

 I wonder if brain growth would cause increased pressure inside the
skull which might be sufficient to act as a trigger for skull growth. 

Not exactly the same scenario, but my dentist uses a traction
technique to make a mature but broken tooth grow again. If you want to
'cap' a tooth that is broken off below the gum line,  you cement a
post and hook into the remaining part of the tooth and connect a
spring from the hook to a bridge across the top of two adjacent teeth.
Over a period of months, traction produced by the spring will cause
the tooth to grow until it is above the gum line and a 'cap' can be
fitted. That's how it was explained to me, anyway.

Of course, brain/skull growth may work in a completely different way. 

Dave L



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