We are at the midpoint in the "Decade of the Brain". Why do we know so much and yet understand so little about the brain? The field of neuroscience has exploded, and anyone who attends one of the large meetings has the impression of drinking from a fire hydran- as so aptly put by the late neuroanatomist Walle J. H. Nauta. Part of that feeling is a general-information problem, experienced in other fields of scienc as well. In brain research, however, the problem is accentuated by the rapid advances of molecular and cellular brain research. The dynamics created by these lines of research have multiplied published output, but have inevitably entailed a compartmentalization of scientific interests and research strategies. If the cost of gaining knowledge is a shrinking horizon of the individual scientist, neuroscience must develop strategies for organizing the acquisition of knowledge. Some of this guidance is given by the society -by medical and, perhaps, commercial needs. But who provides the backbone for establishing a generally accepted "schema" for basic brain research -a frame of reference onto which the millions of information fragments can be fitted, in a way acceptable to a multicultural and polymethodical neuroscience community? We believe that developmental and evolutionary biology has the potential to provide a commonly accepted frame of reference for that multilevel system approach needed to understand the workings of the brain.

Klappentext

A comprehensive review of behavioural neurosciences in an ecological context, covering both theories and experimental procedures. Special attention is placed on the hippocampus and its relation to spatial learning in different species, such as food-storing birds, homing pigeons, kangaroo rats and laboratory rodents. Various methodological chapters deal with measurements of behavioural events and telemetry, exploiting the perspectives of miniaturization of data loggers. This is embedded in chapters dealing with the history of behavioural brain research, development, brain evolution, and population genetics. Audience: Required reading for any neuroscientist who is aware that there is also a world outside the laboratory.

Inhalt
I: Brain, Behaviour, Ontogeny and Evolution.- New Paths Towards Old Dreams: Microphrenology: Or the study of intact brains in intact worlds.- On Telling Growth from Parcellation in Brain Evolution.- Neural Darwinism in the Olfactory System.- Neural Darwinism in the Olfactory System.- Through the Looking-Glass of Cephalopod Colour Patterns: A skin-diver's guide to the Octopus brain.- Discussion Group: Comparative Brain Morphology.- II: Bird Studies.- Lateralization in Memory and the Avian Hippocampus in Food-Storing Birds.- Comparative Studies of Memory in Food Storing Birds: From the field to the Skinner box.- Temporal and Functional Relationship of Brain Maturation and Behavioural Development: A study on glial-neuronal dialogue and its relation to the emergence of full song in the canary.- Homing Pigeons, Hippocampus and Spatial Cognition.- Recent Experiments on Pigeon Navigation.- Discussion Group: Behavioural Brain Research in Naturalistic and Semi-Naturalistic Settings.- III: Hippocampus A Hot Issue.- The Psychobiology of Spatial Behavior: The Hippocampal Formation and Spatial Mapping.- Variations in the Morphology of the Septo-Hippocampal Complex and Maze Learning in Rodents: Correlation Between Morphology and Behaviour.- Dissociation Between Basic Components of Spatial Memory In Rats.- The Ecology of Spatial Cognition: Adaptive patterns of space use and hippocampal size in wild rodents.- Natural Selection on Hippocampal Circuitry Underlying Exploratory Behaviour in Mice: Quantitative-Genetic Analysis.- Stereological Analysis of the Hippocampal Formation of Male and Female Hypothyroid Rats.- Discussion Group: Hippocampus.- IV: Behavioural Brain Research, Methodology and Telemetry.- Evaluating the Social Behaviour of Rodents: Laboratory, Semi-Naturalistic andNaturalistic Approaches.- Animal Reasoning Ability in L.V. Krushinsky'S Experiments.- Social Behaviour and Telemetric Assessment of Thermoregulation in Hibernating Marmots.- Understanding Primate Behaviour: A Cooperative Effort of Field and Laboratory Research.- Methodological and Ethical Considerations on the Use of Telemetry in the Study of Behavioural Responses of Monkeys to Environmental Challenges.- Discussion Group: The Study of Behaviour in Naturalistic, Semi-Naturalistic and Laboratory Environments.- Poster Abstracts Of Participants.