This volume contains summaries of most of the invited presentations at the NATO Advanced Study Institute "Organizing Principles of Neural Development", held in Povoa de Varzim, Portugal, from June 1-12, 1982. The meeting was intended to bring together a select group of investigators to present their views on problems in the field and to foster extensive discussions in smaller groups. It was hoped that such communications would pique curiousity and creativity among the students and thus help in formulating additional hypotheses regarding the type of interactions which might underlie neural development. Despite the wide range of material covered at this institute, a common theme seemed to emerge: at all stages of their develop­ mental history, the cells of the nervous system interact with previously generated cells (both neurons and non-neurons) as well as with other constituents of the developmental milieu. The pre­ sentations at this meeting helped in comprehending how a relatively "simple" series of sequential events might provide the necessary information needed to generate the diversity, characteristic of the adult nervous system, without hypothesizing on the existence of specific genes acting to control each step.

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In Vivo and In Vitro Studies on the Development of the Peripheral Nervous System.- Organizing Principles for Development of Primate Cerebral Cortex.- Cellular Interactions and the Survival and Maintenance of Neurons During Development.- The Sprouting and Distribution of Sensory Nerve Endings.- Nerve-Growth Promoting Activities in Embryonic and Adult Tissues.- Macromolecular Factors Involved in the Regulation of the Survival and Differentiation of Neurons During Development.- A Genetic Analysis of Early Neurogenesis in Drosophila.- Semantics and Neural Development.- Developmental Neurobiology of the Leech.- Development of Neurotransmitter Systems in the Goldfish Retina.- Postnatal Neurochemical Development of the Rat Visual System.- Development of Peptide Immunoreactivity in the Hippocampus, Visual Cortex and Retina.- The Embryonic Development of the Cerebral Cortex: What Can We Learn from Reptiles?.- An Investigation of the Development of Ocular Dominance and Orientation Columns in Cat Striate Cortex Using 2-Deoxyglucose.- Mutation-Induced Disorders of Mammalian Forebrain Development.- The Generation of Binocular Maps in the Hamster Superior Colliculus: Normal and Neonatally Enucleated Animals.- Development of the Retinotectal Projection in Chicks.- Interactions of Axons with their Environment: The Chick Retino-Tectal System as a Model.- Ordered Nerve Connections: Pathways and Maps.- Changes in the Cytoskeleton Provide an Index of Growth Activity and Cell Interactions During Nervous System Regeneration and Plasticity.- Lecturers and Participants.