Sponsors' Foreword

One of the greatest challenges facing neuroscience is Advances in our understanding of learning and memthe understanding of human memory. Over the years, ory have come from studies conducted in a variety of studies have repeatedly shown the exquisite precision organisms, ranging from invertebrates, such as Aplysia in how the brain develops, how information is integrated and Drosophila, to humans. Tremendous gains have and processed by neurons, and how various functions been made at many levels of analysis—from molecular, are organized and distributed in different brain sites. Yet cellular, and systems level approaches to cognitive and both daily experience and ample observations clearly behavioral studies. In many brain systems, barriers bedemonstrate that somehow embedded within this detween different scientific disciplines are dissolving, and ceptively stable structure is an amazing capacity to our understanding of the genes, proteins, and signaling adapt and change as a result of experience—allowing cascades underpinning learning processes are beginthe brain to acquire, retain, and later, when needed, ning to converge into an integrated understanding of retrieve the stored information for subsequent use. What the neurobiological and cognitive processes underlyare the brain mechanisms underlying the various facets ing memory. of declarative memory (our memory for facts and events) The areas reviewed in the present volume are among and how do these compare with mechanisms giving rise those where we have seen some of the most remarkable to other kinds of learning and memory? What are the progress in recent years. The neuroscience institutes at unique properties and what are the common features the National Institutes of Health have long recognized shared by different types of nondeclarative learning, the importance of basic research directed at undersuch as emotional learning, motor learning, and olfacstanding the neural mechanisms underlying learning and tory learning? What factors or mechanisms are associmemory. In addition to being at the scientific frontier, ated with age-related memory decline and other undestudies of learning and memory are crucial to our evensirable changes, such as pathological forms of fear tual understanding of the processes that go awry in brain conditioning, drug and alcohol addiction, and the develillnesses that lead to disorders of cognition, perception, opment of chronic debilitating pain after injury? What and memory. This research is essential for guiding the can be done to reverse or prevent such maladaptive development of effective preventions, treatments, and changes? And how can we prevent the devastating cures for many of the most serious brain-related disormemory loss associated with diseases such as Alzders. We are, therefore, pleased to support this imporheimer’s? tant volume to highlight these advances.