Recent findings on the structural and functional properties of the striate cortex of cats and primates are briefly reviewed. In particular these findings show that: i) different stimulus attributes are processed at least partially in parallel, ii) the responses of single neurones to a given visual stimulus are context-dependent, iii) some degree of neural plasticity is present even in the adult visual cortex, iv) multiplexed temporal codes may be used by visual neurons to transmit multiple messages about different stimulus qualities. Some properties of extrastriate visual areas are suggestive of further stages of visual processing that may be relevant for pattern recognition.