What could evolve in the evolution of memory?

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'.