Neuroscience is progressing so rapidly that even expressions such as by leaps and bounds fail to capture the pace of its growth. Questions that once were thought to be unanswerable - perhaps even unaskable - have now been both asked and answered, and new questions once unthinkable, are routine. Topics in Integrative Neuroscience has singled out four of the most important problems in neuroscience: higher order perception; language; memory systems; and sensory processes. The volume presents original contributions by many of the leading researchers in those fields, and with an initial chapter covering neuroethics. It is impossible to capture fully the sweep of discoveries that emerged from the 'Decade of the Brain' within the covers of a single volume. It is possible, however, to provide a sample, both in recognition of what has been accomplished and as a harbinger of what is surely to come.

Originally published in 1981, perceptual organization had been synonymous with Gestalt psychology, and Gestalt psychology had fallen into disrepute. In the heyday of Behaviorism, the few cognitive psychologists of the time pursued Gestalt phenomena. But in 1981, Cognitive Psychology was married to Information Processing. (Some would say that it was a marriage of convenience.) After the wedding, Cognitive Psychology had come to look like a theoretically wrinkled Behaviorism; very few of the mainstream topics of Cognitive Psychology made explicit contact with Gestalt phenomena. In the background, Cognition's first love - Gestalt - was pining to regain favor. The cognitive psychologists' desire for a phenomenological and intellectual interaction with Gestalt psychology did not manifest itself in their publications, but it did surface often enough at the Psychonomic Society meeting in 1976 for them to remark upon it in one of their conversations. This book, then, is the product of the editors' curiosity about the status of ideas at the time, first proposed by Gestalt psychologists. For two days in November 1977, they held an exhilarating symposium that was attended by some 20 people, not all of whom are represented in this volume. At the end of our symposium it was agreed that they would try, in contributions to this volume, to convey the speculative and metatheoretical ground of their research in addition to the solid data and carefully wrought theories that are the figure of their research.

Originally published in 1981, perceptual organization had been synonymous with Gestalt psychology, and Gestalt psychology had fallen into disrepute. In the heyday of Behaviorism, the few cognitive psychologists of the time pursued Gestalt phenomena. But in 1981, Cognitive Psychology was married to Information Processing. (Some would say that it was a marriage of convenience.) After the wedding, Cognitive Psychology had come to look like a theoretically wrinkled Behaviorism; very few of the mainstream topics of Cognitive Psychology made explicit contact with Gestalt phenomena. In the background, Cognition's first love - Gestalt - was pining to regain favor. The cognitive psychologists' desire for a phenomenological and intellectual interaction with Gestalt psychology did not manifest itself in their publications, but it did surface often enough at the Psychonomic Society meeting in 1976 for them to remark upon it in one of their conversations. This book, then, is the product of the editors' curiosity about the status of ideas at the time, first proposed by Gestalt psychologists. For two days in November 1977, they held an exhilarating symposium that was attended by some 20 people, not all of whom are represented in this volume. At the end of our symposium it was agreed that they would try, in contributions to this volume, to convey the speculative and metatheoretical ground of their research in addition to the solid data and carefully wrought theories that are the figure of their research.

Neuroscience is progressing so rapidly that even expressions such as 'by leaps and bounds' fail to capture the pace of its growth. Questions that once were thought to be unanswerable - perhaps even unaskable - have been both asked and answered, and questions once unthinkable, are routine. Topics in Integrative Neuroscience has singled out four of the most important problems in neuroscience: higher order perception; language; memory systems; and sensory processes. The volume presents original contributions by many of the leading researchers in those fields, and with an initial chapter covering neuroethics. It is impossible to capture fully the sweep of discoveries that emerged from the 'Decade of the Brain' within the covers of a single volume. It is possible, however, to provide a sample, both in recognition of what has been accomplished and as a harbinger of what is surely to come.