This volume includes papers originally presented at the 7th annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS'98) held in July of 1998 at the Fess Parker Doubletree Inn in Santa Barbara, California. The CNS meetings bring together computational neuroscientists representing many different fields and backgrounds as well as many different experimental preparations and theoretical approaches. The papers published here range from pure experimental neurobiology, to neuro-ethology, mathematics, physics, and engineering. In all cases the research described is focused on understanding how nervous systems compute. The actual subjects of the research include a highly diverse number of preparations, modeling approaches, and analysis techniques. Accordingly, this volume reflects the breadth and depth of current research in computational neuroscience taking place throughout the world.