Cortical plasticity in normal and abnormal cognitive development: Evidence and working hypotheses

In this paper I review evidence and viewpoints on developmental plasticity in the cerebral cortex. Although there is some degree of plasticity in the cortex during early postnatal life in the human infant this plasticity is constrained by various factors. Three working hypotheses about postnatal cortical specialization of function are advanced, and some specific predictions about the limits and extent of plasticity are assessed through both empirical evidence from infants and simulations on simple cortical network models.