The logistics of afferent cortical specification in mice and men

The mechanisms shaping areal specification in the neocortex have been the focus of a sustained interest over the past three decades. Studies in rodents have provided insight in the interplay between intrinsic genetic mechanisms and extrinsic inputs relayed to the cortex by thalamocortical axons. Here we focus on the exploration of the developing primate visual system which points to embryonic thalamic axons exerting a profound, early instructive role on arealisation in the primate cortex, via an influence on cortical progenitor cell-cycle and mode of division.