This new Gordon conference series provides a forum for researchers and students to exchange data and discuss ideas on cutting-edge issues in the neurobiology of cognition. Given the broad field, we envision that each meeting will have a somewhat different focus, to facilitate in-depth discussions and at the same time preserve the breadth. A list of session topics and speakers is currently being developed. The program and format of the meeting will be designed to foster intense interactions among investigators from different fields (e.g. between cognitive neuroscientists using human fMRI and neurophysiologists working with behaving animals) or across levels (from cellular and subcellular physiology, microcircuits, to large-scale brain systems), as well as between experimentalists and theorists.