The development of the chick embryo diencephalon and mesencephalon during the initial phases of neuroblast differentiation

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Abstract
The development of the nervous system presents many interesting problems as a developing system with numerous parameters of differentiation as well as from the point of view of the establishment of adult structure and function. With our growing understanding of developmental processes in general, and interactions at various stages of development in particular, it should be profitable to study more closely events of each period in a developing system, looking for information concerning their immediate control and their relation to events of other periods. In the nervous system, one phase which should be investigated much more thoroughly—especially from the point of view of the control of cellular differentiation—is that of the initial appearance of neuroblast cells and formation of the first nerve processes. Most studies of normal embryos which have included the period of initial differentiation have been primarily concerned with tracing the origins of definitive nuclei and fiber tracts, though possible mechanisms controlling various aspects of their development have of course been discussed.