This volume contains summaries of most of the invited presentations given by lecturers and participants at the NATO Advanced Study Institute, "Develop­ mental Neurobiology of Vision," held in Rethymnon, Crete, Greece 18-27 Sep­ tember 1978. The purpose of this meeting was to enable a relatively small international group of scientists and students to hold discussions and to present their views on current problems in the field. It was intended that the results of the exchanges would be conveyed to others in the native countries of the parti­ cipants. An attempt was made to obtain broad representation of disciplines within the area of the Institute and this is reflected in the diversity of the chapters in this book. Considerable interest has been generated in recent years concerning the development and plasticity of vision. Perhaps not unexpectedly, along with the high level of activity in this field, there have been so me controversial findings.

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Three Theories of Cortical Function.- Studies of the Kitten's Visual System.- Development of Ganglion Cells in the Retina of the Cat.- Development of Orientation Tuning in the Visual Cortex of Kittens.- Maturation of Visual Cortex with and without Visual Experience.- Kinetics of the Development of Orientation Selectivity in the Primary Visual Cortex of Normally and Dark-reared Kittens.- Optokinetic Nystagmus and Single-cell Responses in the Nucleus Tractus Opticus After Early Monocular Deprivation in the Cat.- Neuronal Activity in the Afferent Visual System and Monocular Pattern Deprivation.- Development of the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus in Cats Raised with Monocular Eyelid Suture.- The Consequence of a "Consolidation" Period Following Brief Monocular Deprivation in Kittens.- Competitive Interactions in Postnatal Development of the Kitten's Visual System.- Orientation-dependent Changes in Response Properties of Neurons in the Kitten's Visual Cortex.- Evidence for a Central Control of Developmental Plasticity in the Striate Cortex of Kittens.- Behavioural Recovery from Visual Deprivation: Comments on the Critical Period.- Studies of the Cat's Visual System.- Lability of Directional Tuning and Ocular Dominance of Complex Cells in the Cat's Visual Cortex.- Intrinsic Connectivity in Area 18 of the Cat.- Visual Cell X/Y Classifications: Characteristics and Correlations.- Functional Plasticity in the Mature Visual System: Changes of the Retino-geniculate Topography After Chronic Visual Deafferentation.- Integration of Visual and Nonvisual Information in Nucleus Reticularis Thalami of the Cat.- A Hypothesis on the Efferent System from the Visual Cortex.- Sensitivity of Visual Neurons to the Timing of Input from the Two Eyes.- Studies of the Monkey's Visual System.- Genesis of Visual Connections in the Rhesus Monkey.- Reversal of the Effects of Visual Deprivation in Monkeys.- How Ocular Dominance Stripes May Be Formed.- Studies of the Human's Visual System.- Development of Optokinetic Nystagmus in the Human Infant and Monkey Infant: an Analogue to Development in Kittens.- Accommodation and Acuity in the Human Infant.- Development of Infant Contrast Sensitivity Evaluated by Evoked Potentials.- An Experience-dependent Aspect of Human Visual Acuity.- Studies of the Visual Systems of Various Sub-Primate Species.- Late LEO: A New System for the Study of Neuroplasticity in Xenopus.- The Nature of the Nerve Fibre Guidance Mechanism Responsible for the Formation of an Orderly Central Visual Projection.- Growth and Neurogenesis in Adult Goldfish Retina.- The Organization of the Optic Tectum in Larval, Transforming, and Adult Sea Lamprey, Petromyzon Marinus.- Connectivity of Retinal Projections in Uniocular Mice.- Peripheral Influences on Connectivity in the Developing Rat Trigeminal System.- Experimental Manipulations of the Development of Ordered Projections in the Mammalian Brain.- Development and Plasticity of Neuronal Connections in the Lamb Visual System.- Refractive Changes in the Chicken Eye Following Lid Fusion.- Neurochemical Studies.- The Cholinergic System in the Chicken Retina: Cellular Localization and Development.- Characterization of Neural Enzyme Development in Dissociated Chick Embryo Brain Cell Cultures.