ABSTRACT
This monograph constitutes a singular and bold initiative toward a synthesis of sensation and reward. Although these topics have developed in parallel, this may be largely a historical “accident.” On the other hand, the complexity of each domain may be so great that an extensive separate research on sensation and reward was necessary before an attempted synthesis could be initiated (see chapter by Marks in this volume). In any event, the current state of affairs does not yet permit an overarching speci cation of lines of integration between these topics. Thus, while introductory chapters are often concerned with such matters, the Preface by Jay Gottfried adequately sets the rationale for and context of this volume. Accordingly, this introductory chapter has another goal, which is to deal with both very old and very new aspects of one of the issues speci ed in the Preface: “the ability to predict and anticipate reward.” The very old issue concerns the longestablished, but rarely discussed, exclusion of learning, memory, and related cognitive processes from primary sensory cortical elds in audition, somesthesis, and vision. The very new topic concerns recent surprising ndings about the effects of reward level on associative plasticity in the primary auditory cortex. So, in one sense, this chapter serves as a set of proximal “bookends” for the contents of this monograph.
