Microglial Synaptic Pruning

**What it means:** During brain development, the brain makes way more synaptic connections than it needs — like building more roads than necessary. **Microglia** (the brain's immune cells) act as "pruners" — they identify weak or unused connections and engulf/destroy them, "pruning" the brain down to the most efficient wiring. Think of a gardener trimming a hedge to give it the right shape. **Why MEF2C loss matters in MHS:** With reduced MEF2C, microglia go into **overdrive**. They prune too aggressively, eliminating connections that should be preserved. This excessive pruning is thought to contribute to the cognitive and social deficits in MHS — like a gardener who's lost their mind and hedges everything to the ground.