A critique of the neuroecology of learning and memory |
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| Institution: | 1. Dept of Behavioural Biology, Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Leiden University, PO Box 9516, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands;2. Dept of Behavioural Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 14, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands;3. Dept of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York, UK YO1 5DD;1. Grupo de Neurocomputación Biológica, Dpto. de Ingeniería Informática, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain;2. BioCircuits Institute, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0402, USA;1. Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, 307 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0JX, UK;2. Bioinformatics Department, Babraham Institute, Cambridge CB22 3AT, UK;3. Human Behaviour Laboratory, University of Iceland, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland;1. Wellcome Trust PhD Programme, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dow Street, Dundee DD1 5EH, UK;2. Division of Plant Science, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee at the James Hutton Institute (JHI), Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, UK;3. Dundee Effector Consortium, JHI, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, UK;1. Yale-NUS College, 12 College Avenue West, Singapore;2. Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A⁎STAR, 61 Biopolis Drive, Singapore;3. Dept. of Physiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore;4. Dept. of Life Sciences and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva 8410501 Israel;5. School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, 637551, Singapore;1. Metal Forming Technology R&D Group, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Incheon 406–840, Korea;2. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA;3. Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, Suwon 443–749, Korea |
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| Abstract: | Recent years have seen the emergence of neuroecology, the study of the neural mechanisms of behaviour guided by functional and evolutionary principles. This research has been of enormous value for our understanding of the evolution of brain- and species-specific behaviour. However, we question the validity of the neuroecological approach when applied to the analysis of learning and memory, given its arbitrary assumption that different ‘problems’ engage different memory mechanisms. Differences in memory-based performance in ‘natural’ tasks do not prove differences in memory capacity; similarly, differences in the use of memory in the natural environment do not provide a sound basis for expecting differences in anatomical structures that subserve learning and memory. This critique is illustrated with examples taken from the study of the neurobiology of food storing and song learning in birds. |
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