ABSTRACT
When Graham Goddard discovered the kindling phenomenon, he hoped that it would prove to be a “Rossetta Stone” for unraveling the mysteries of memory mechanisms. Most of us who were attracted to this new area of investigation were no less enthusiastic about its potential. Although a shift in emphasis in recent years has placed kindling more firmly in the category of epilepsy model rather than memory model, Graham never totally gave up on its potential for clarifying memory mechanisms. I have been a less faithful adherent to this view, and even Graham found it easier to talk about kindling as an epilepsy model. The relevance of kindling for memory researchers remains a debated topic. This is just one of the areas of controversy in the kindling field that I discuss in this chapter. First, however, I provide a brief description of the phenomenon.
