Neural tube

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Neural tube" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Neural tube
Transverse section of half of a chick embryo of forty-five hours' incubation. The dorsal (back) surface of the embryo is toward the top of this page, while the ventral (front) surface is toward the bottom. (Neural tube is in green.)
Chick embryo of thirty-three hours' incubation, viewed from the dorsal aspect (30x magnification)
Details
Carnegie stage	10
Precursor	Neural groove
Gives rise to	Central nervous system (brain and spinal cord)
Identifiers
Latin	tubus neuralis, tuba neuralis
MeSH	D054259
TE	tube_by_E5.14.1.0.0.0.1 E5.14.1.0.0.0.1
Anatomical terminology [edit on Wikidata]

In the developing chordate (including vertebrates), the neural tube is the embryonic precursor to the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain and spinal cord. The neural groove gradually deepens as the neural fold become elevated, and ultimately the folds meet and coalesce in the middle line and convert the groove into the closed neural tube. In humans, neural tube closure usually occurs by the fourth week of pregnancy (the 28th day after conception).