CONTROVERSIES IN NEUROSCIENCE

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Over the last decade, neuroscience has failed to keep up with the rapid growth in the numbers of scientists and research techniques, and in the cost of doing research. Scientists have become more focused, making it more difficult for them to share information with other neuroscientists who work with a different level of the nervous system or with different techniques. Scientific meetings sometimes fail to identify critical research areas or to effectively disseminate this information. We propose an annual conference that focuses each year on controversial or unresolved issues in a particular field of neuroscience. During the year for which funding is requested in this application, the conference will focus on motor learning and synaptic plasticity in the cerebellum. In this conference, we propose to bring together scientists who work on the behavioral level and the synaptic level. With this conference, we will bring attention to an important area of learning and memory, one that has not received the attention due from past conferences. The conference is modeled on Behavioral and Brain Sciences, a scientific journal that specializes in controversial position papers with peer review commentary. Each of the 9, 45-minute "target" presentations will be followed by a 45-minute discussion period. The proceedings of this conference will be published as a special edition of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and as a type-set book by Cambridge University Press.