CONTROVERSIES IN NEUROSCIENCE

Over the last decade, the scientific discipline of 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 generally 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 years
for which funding is requested in this application, the conference will
focus on: neural transplantation (1991), and G-protein-coupled receptors in
the nervous system (1992). The conference format is modeled on Behavioral and Brain Science. a
scientific journal that specializes in controversial position papers with
peer review commentary. Each of the 8, 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
Science.