The cerebral areas related to vision in the rhesus monkey were identified by comparison of metabolic activity in visually stimulated versus visually deafferented cerebral hemispheres. The results allowed delineation of the visual-nonvisual borders of both an occipitotemporal and an occipitoparietal visual pathway and specification of their points of interaction with frontal, limbic, striatal, and diencephalic structures. In addition, it was found that, within the occipitotemporal pathway, the forebrain commissures contribute to the visual activation of area TE only. Finally, the functional development of the visual system as reflected in its metabolic activity was traced in a series of infant monkeys and was found to reach adult levels at about 4 months postnatally.
