Recent data show that the final events of mammalian brain organogenesis may depend in part on the direct control of neural stem cell (NSC) proliferation and survival. Environmental and intrinsic factors play a role throughout development and during adulthood to regulate NSC proliferation. The NSCs acquire new competences throughout development, including adulthood, and this change in competence is region-specific. The factors controlling NSC survival, undifferentiated state, proliferation, and cell-cycle number are beginning to be identified, but the links between them remain unclear. However, current knowledge should help to formulate an understanding of how a stem cell can generate a new stem cell.