A meeting to remember

Introduction Blustery Madrid winter days, traffic-congested streets and an encounter with dysfunctional public transport are difficult to forget. Fortunately, the approximately 50 scientists that gathered in the city for the workshop on ‘Memory and Related Disorders’ also took away memories of outstanding presentations and vigorous discussions. The workshop tackled a diverse set of topics including: the neural systems involved in declarative and emotional memories; the cellular and molecular correlates of memory and their modulation by drugs of abuse; memory phases; and the effects on the cellular and neural systems of ageing and neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases. Diverse experimental disciplines represented at the meeting—such as bioinformatics, biophysics, cell and molecular biology, experimental psychology, genetics, neuroimaging, neuroethology, pharmacology and physiology—provided a rich tapestry depicting the encoding and maintenance of memories, and the diseases that subvert these processes.