Leadbeater Ellouise, Watrobska Cecylia
Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK.
Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2025 Jun 26;380(1929):20240109. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2024.0109.
Over the past five decades, advances in neuroscience have set out the adaptive landscape of memory, illuminating semi-independent storage mechanisms, forgetting mechanisms and modifications to basic machinery that bring context specificity. Yet because much of neuroscience aims to understand how the human brain functions, rather than to explore taxonomic diversity, the implications for animal cognitive evolution remain underexplored. This perspective article examines the potential evolutionary diversity of animal memory from a mechanistic viewpoint. We argue that taking into account neurogenetic and neurophysiological mechanisms of memory could illuminate how the diversity of cognitive traits has been shaped by natural selection. By focussing on memory in insects, notably through the lens of associative processes, we target our discussion on potential variation in taxonomically general processes within one of the animal kingdom's richest and most diverse animal groups. This exploration aims to broaden the discourse on memory evolution within the field of cognitive ecology towards an understanding of the many ways in which memory could be shaped by natural selection.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Selection shapes diverse animal minds'.
在过去的五十年里，神经科学的进展描绘了记忆的适应性图景，揭示了半独立的存储机制、遗忘机制以及对赋予情境特异性的基本机制的修饰。然而，由于神经科学的许多研究旨在了解人类大脑的功能，而非探索分类学上的多样性，其对动物认知进化的影响仍未得到充分探讨。这篇观点文章从机制的角度审视了动物记忆潜在的进化多样性。我们认为，考虑到记忆的神经遗传学和神经生理学机制，有助于阐明认知特征的多样性是如何通过自然选择形成的。通过聚焦于昆虫的记忆，特别是通过联想过程这一视角，我们将讨论目标锁定在动物界最丰富多样的动物群体之一中分类学上普遍存在的过程的潜在变异。这一探索旨在拓宽认知生态学领域内关于记忆进化的讨论，以理解记忆可能通过自然选择形成的多种方式。本文是西奥·墨菲会议议题“选择塑造多样的动物思维”的一部分。
