Neural mechanisms of behavior

Work during the past year has revealed increasing diversity and complexity of sensory inputs that trigger behavior, and correspondingly wide-ranging adaptations of sensory receptors and receptor organs. Many of these have been discovered by taking careful account of the animal in its natural habitat. Studies on central processing have made major strides in the understanding of neural maps and assembly codes. Studies that are primarily experimental, as opposed to theoretical, continue to produce most of the significant advances in this field. Perhaps the single most dominant theme has been the continuing erasure of the line separating invertebrate and vertebrate neurobehavioral systems.