Cortical plasticity: a view from nonhuman primates

The primate's large brain-to-body weight ratio and high complexity are unusual in the animal kingdom. There is compelling evidence that it is an evolutionary adaptation that allows its owner to live a long life because of its competence in solving a wide range of problems. How primates use their brain to achieve such competence is of course of central interest to us. Here we review some key aspects of the neocortex that can be explored in nonhuman primates. Studies of the cortical circuits in the visual cortex reveal that the two major types of pathways, called feedforward and feedback, involve a very small fraction of the total synapses that any area contains. Nevertheless these pathways may be critical for some important forms of cortical plasticity, like perceptual learning and tasks involving perception and action.