Two very well studied patterning signals for the cortex include FGF and retinoic acid. If FGFs are misexpressed in different areas of the developing cortex, cortical patterning is disrupted. Specifically, when Fgf8 is increased in the anterior pole, Emx2 is downregulated and a caudal shift in the cortical region occurs. This ultimately causes an expansion of the rostral regions. Therefore, Fgf8 and other FGFs play a role in the regulation of expression of Emx2 and Pax6 and represent how the cerebral cortex can become specialized for different functions.