Duchaine, B.

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UCL Discovery

are superb. The editors and contributors are tobe commended for the tight organization of thechapters.The high level of integration among chapters andpresentation style works well to expose readers to theenormity of research on SSD. The articles display awiderangeofanalyticalmethods.Hence,thevolumerepresents a veritable toolbox for students—molec-ular techniques, phylogenetic comparative methods,and well-designed ﬁeld and laboratory experimentsare all generously represented. Veteran scholars willﬁnd new ideas and approaches in this book becauseit covers such a wide array of systems (pygophores tohorns to calyces), taxa (birds to beetles), and levelsof biological organization (alleles to all eukaryotes).Readers will appreciate the introductory remarks onthe biology of the study organisms in each chapter;these portions were indispensable for connectingwith a wide audience. Also helpful are the “Sug-gested Reading” sections after each chapter that di-rect readers to the inﬂuential literature cited. Theonly thing missing from this volume is a thoughtfulconclusion or summary chapter at the end. Beyondthis minor point, I found this to be an excellentassemblage of contributions that will act as a guidingforce in future studies of SSD.Lance D McBrayer, Biology, Georgia SouthernUniversity, Statesboro, GeorgiaEvolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience. Cogni-tive Neuroscience.Edited by Steven M Platek, Julian Paul Keenan, andTodd K Shackelford. Cambridge (Massachusetts):MIT Press. $65.00. xix 1 616 p; ill.; index. ISBN:0-262-16241-5. 2007.Sixteen years ago, Barkow et al. published TheAdapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Gener-ation of Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press),which was a collection of chapters that laid thetheoretical foundation for much of the currentcognitive research informed by evolutionary con-siderations. Since then, the techniques and theo-ries from cognitive psychology and neurosciencehave been integrated much more thoroughly thanbefore. This cognitive neuroscience approach nowdominates brain research, yet like its cognitive psy-chology ancestor, most cognitive neuroscience isnot concerned with evolutionary questions norguided by evolutionary considerations. Evolution-ary Cognitive Neuroscience is an edited work thatdocuments cognitive neuroscience research thatdoes take an evolutionary approach. Although thisvolume does not address theoretical issues with thedepth of The Adapted Mind, it provides a valuableintroduction to the issues, a snapshot of currentresearch, and an encouraging view of the future ofthis ﬁeld.This book contains 21 chapters grouped into sixsections: Introduction and Overview (three chap-ters); Neuroanatomy: Ontogeny and Phylogeny(four chapters); Reproduction and Kin Selection(four chapters); Spatial Cognition and Language(three chapters); Self-Awareness and Social Cogni-tion (ﬁve chapters); and Theoretical, Ethical, andFuture Implications for Evolutionary Cognitive Neu-roscience (two chapters). The introductory chapterprovides a nice overview of the concepts, advantages,and issues that an evolutionary perspective providesfor cognitive neuroscientists. Each of the empiricalsections included valuable chapters, and severalstood out. The chapter on sex differences in spatialabilities by Puts et al. offers an example of a topicwith well-developed theories at multiple levels of ex-planation. Santos et al.’s chapter provides a review ofhuman and nonhuman primate mind-reading the-ory and research with a focus on the recentdemonstration that chimps and macaques usegaze information in competitive, but not coop-erative, situations. They discuss the implicationsof this revealing ﬁnding and then demonstratethe value of a solid evolutionary and cognitiveunderstanding by making empirical predictionsabout the neural basis of these abilities.The volume would have beneﬁted from discus-sion of how neurocognitive mechanisms evolve, asthis is obviously a central question for this enter-prise. In addition, greater coverage of recent struc-tural and functional imaging done with nonhu-man primates and how these results compare withhuman imaging ﬁndings would have been enlight-ening. Nevertheless, readers from a variety of dis-ciplines will ﬁnd the majority of these chaptersquite interesting and a good demonstration of thepromise of evolutionary cognitive neuroscience.Brad Duchaine, Institute of Cognitive Neuro-science, University College London, London, UnitedKingdomEvolution of Microbial Pathogens.Edited by H Steven Seifert and Victor J DiRita. Wash-ington (DC): ASM Press. $119.95. xiii 1 355 p; ill.;index. ISBN: 1-55581-300-3. 2006.This volume provides exemplary insight into thedriving forces that shape microbial pathogen evo-lution. Much information has been wrought byanalyzing bacterial genomes, and has been stimu-lated by the discovery of myriad novel pathogensover the past several decades (such as that Helico-bacter pylori infections cause ulcers and gastrointes-tinal carcinoma/lymphoma). In just 17 chapters(including overviews by lead investigators), thebook encompasses both general principles andspeciﬁc examples. Each chapter concludes with ahelpful summary of salient points.100 Volume 83 THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY

Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience

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