For more than ten years, The Science for Conservators Series has provided the key basic texts for conservators throughout the world. Scientific concepts are basic to the conservation of artefacts of every type, yet many conservators have little or no scientific training. These introductory volumes provide non-scientists with the essential theoretical background to their work.

This volume, the sixth in the IBAGS series, summarizes major contributions in clinical and basic research on the basal ganglia. The sixth meeting of the Society was held on Cape Cod, in the state of Massachusetts, USA, in October, 1998. Altogether 16 countries were represented by 227 participants. This volume contains papers contributed by participants. The focus of the sixth triennial IBAGS meeting, and of this volume, was to bring to gether leaders in basic and clinical science to address two sets of still-persisting questions in the field. The first set focuses on the functions of the basal ganglia in health and disease: What are the core functions of the basal ganglia and cortico-basal ganglia loops? How are these core functions disrupted in disorders affecting the basal ganglia? How do we account for the broad range of behaviors affected by basal ganglia disorders and for the increasing evidence that the basal ganglia influence cognitive as well as motor functions? These issues are addressed in the first five sections of the current volume, which summarize advances in the study of basal ganglia disorders based on studies in humans (Section 1), new results obtained with experimental animal models of basal ganglia disorders (Section 2), results of experiments on information coding in the basal ganglia (Section 3) and new information about functions of the basal ganglia related to learning and adaptive motor control (Section 4).

The impetus for this book was the desire to systematically organize the extant literature on the conservation of cultural property made of wood, from its beginnings before the Christian Era to the year 2000. Various published reviews and monographs, including Holzkonservierung (Wood Conserva tion) published by the senior author in 1988, have appeared over the years, especially in English and in German. They have provided exemplary treat merit of individual areas or aspects of wood conservation, but a comprehen sive, up-to-date exposition of historic and current developments has been lacking. The diverse professional fields of the authors, as well as their insights into methods of conservation and restoration of wood artifacts in Europe, North America, and Asia provided a solid basis for the success of this under taking. One of the goals during the examination of the literature was that not only well-known conservators and scientists from countries that are leaders in wood conservation should be represented, but that less well-known, often not as readily accessible contributions should also be included. Only in this manner was it possible to draw a comprehensive picture of the national and international state of wood conservation. The Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts (AATA) of the Getty Institute were very helpful in our efforts to evaluate as many publications as possible.