Frontiers in Neuroscience is a second-tier journal that highlights the most outstanding articles published in the first-tier specialty journals (e.g., Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, etc.) judged over a period of a few months. These prestigious articles are re-written in a review-like style centered on the core discovery, but in a broader neuroscience context. Advanced graphics and copyediting are used to make these discoveries more understandable to the general neuroscience reader. Authors, Review Editors and Associate Editors are awarded prizes for articles that are selected for publishing in Frontiers in Neuroscience. The inaugural issue of Frontiers in Neuroscience is a collection of original research papers contributed by the Chief Editors of Frontiers in Neuroscience and the Specialty Journals. This represents the breadth and depth that Frontiers strives for as well as the sense of excitement in brain research in the first decade of the 3rd millennium.