Brain–Behavior Relationships in Early Visual Development

Abstract

Anatomical, physiological, and functional data on early visual development are reviewed by discussing models of brain–behavior relationships during this period. Models have been formulated at the retinal, subcortical, and cortical levels. Constraints based on front-end (optical and photoreceptoral) limitations have been reasonably successful in explaining the data on the development of spatial contrast vision. Cortically based models have relied on putative differences in the rates of maturation of various subpathways within the visual system to explain the order of emergence of various visual functions. These cortically based models are inherently more difficult to evaluate because of the complexities associated with brain–behavior relationships at this level of the visual system. Formulating developmental versions of these cortical brain–behavior relationships adds another level of subtlety to the problem when subpathways within the visual system develop “on-line” postnatally.