Neural Development is a peer-reviewed open access, online journal, which features studies that use molecular, cellular, physiological or behavioral methods to provide novel insights into the mechanisms that underlie the formation of the nervous system.

Neural Development aims to discover how the nervous system arises and acquires the abilities to sense the world and control adaptive motor output. The field includes analysis of how progenitor cells form a nervous system during embryogenesis, and how the initially formed neural circuits are shaped by experience during early postnatal life. Some studies use well-established, genetically accessible model systems, but valuable insights are also obtained from less traditional models that provide behavioral or evolutionary insights.