The neural plate is a key developmental structure that serves as the basis for the nervous system. Opposite the primitive streak in the embryo, ectodermal tissue thickens and flattens to become the neural plate. The ends of the neural plate, known as the neural folds, push the ends of the plate up and together, folding into the neural tube, a structure critical to brain and spinal cord development. This process as a whole is termed primary neurulation.

Signaling proteins are also important in neural plate development, and help in differentiating the tissue destined to become the neural plate. Examples of such proteins include bone morphogenic proteins and cadherins. Expression of these proteins is essential to neural plate folding and subsequent neural tube formation.