Symposium Neuroontogeneticum at Prague.

The article presents information on the Symposium Neuroontogeneticum which was sponsored by the Department of Physiology of the Charles University Medical School in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The symposium was devoted to cross-disciplinary exchange of information on basic mechanisms underlying growth and development. Its 1973 session, attended by some 40 invited participants from all over the world, covered a wide range of topics pertinent to developmental problems in sensory functioning and learning. Although many of the papers dealt with animal studies, scientists attending the meeting managed to share their thinking in such diverse areas as embryology, biochemistry, neurophysiology, and infant behavior. It was clear from informal discussion at the symposium that learning disabilities constitute a worldwide problem of sizeable dimensions. Definitive and fool-proof diagnostic tools seem to be nonexistent. Management techniques are rarely standardized and vary even within countries; those now in use tend to be viewed as partially successful with a few children and wholly successful with none.