Ecology and the central nervous system

Why should behavioral ecologists pay any attention to cognitive processes? Could bird song complexity have evolved as a strategy to promulgate an individual’s cognitive qualities? Is limited attention an optimal strategy or simply a processing constraint? Should studies of spatial learning be moved to the field? Can published reports of behavioral innovation be used as a convenient measure of an animal’s cognitive ability in the field? Four internationally recognized speakers discussed these and other questions at the symposium ‘Ecology and the Central Nervous System’ in Montreal during the meeting of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. Their contribution presented in this publication, illustrate the extent to which cognitive processes and the central nervous structures that support them have been shaped by natural selection to meet the challenges of the ecological circumstances in which they operate.