The ongoing balance of cortical excitation and inhibition during early development

Two papers recently published in Nature propose that the balance between excitation and inhibition is important for the maturation of cortical function. Their conclusions however, are contradictory; one study suggests that balance is established before hearing onset, whereas the other proposes that balance is established after hearing onset. We carefully examined the data and found that the differences between the two groups are less dramatic than they first appear. Despite their methodological differences, both studies provide evidence that an ongoing balance between cortical excitation/inhibition accounts for the maturation and refinement of cortical function during early development. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.