DESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Abstract) This application requests support for a Symposium entitled "Cocaine and Development: Clinical, Behavioral and Neurobiological Perspectives," to be included in the Annual Meeting of the Neurobehavioral Teratology Society (NBTS). This meeting will take place in San Diego, California, from June 21-24, 1998. The proposed Symposium will bring together basic and clinical researchers who study the neural and behavioral effects of developmental exposure to cocaine in humans and in animal models. Its objective is to identify new findings and approaches in this area, to elucidate the mechanisms through which cocaine alters neurobehavioral development and function, and to compare these effects in animals and humans. This Symposium will also provide a unique and important forum for the interchange of ideas between the invited speakers and NBTS members who study agents which impair the development of brain and behavior in a much broader context. The Symposium will consist of six speakers, two for each of the three perspectives mentioned in the Symposium title. Clinical research will be reviewed by Dr. Linda Mayes, Yale University, and Dr. Sandra Jacobson, Wayne State University. Behavioral research will be covered by Dr. Linda Spear, Binghamton University, and Dr. Trevor Robbins, University of Cambridge. Neurobiological approaches will be represented by Dr. Diana Dow-Edwards, SUNY-Brooklyn, and Dr. Yasmin Hurd, Karolinska Institute. A summary of the Symposium proceedings will be published in Neurotoxicology and Teratology.