DEFECTIVE brain development is not responsible for creating facial
deformities during fetal growth in animals, says a report by California
biologists. The finding could lead to new treatments for certain birth
defects.
For decades, doctors have noticed that children born with deformed faces
often have underlying brain defects. So in the 1950s doctors came to believe
that the developing brain itself shaped our visage, says Jill Helms of the
University of California, San Francisco. And a condition called cyclopia seemed
to back up this theory—embryos that developed compressed faces with a
single eye were often missing the entire forebrain.…
