Inferior temporal cortex is necessary for visual object recognition in adult primates but is less critical in infants. Nonetheless, in macaques as young as 6 weeks old, inferior temporal neurons showed adult-like visual response properties, including form selectivity and bilateral receptive fields, indicating that extended maturation and visual experience may not be necessary for adult-like encoding of complex objects. However, before the animals were 4 months old, visual responsiveness was found in inferior temporal cortex only in awake monkeys performing a behavioral task and not in anesthetized ones, suggesting that extraretinal factors profoundly influence function in "association" cortex in developing as well as mature animals.
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