Book Review: Missed Connections: Integrating Proximate and Ultimate Explanations in Cognitive Neuroscience

Abstract

Reviews the book, Evolutionary cognitive neuroscience edited by Steven M. Platek, Julian Paul Keenan, and Todd K. Shackelford (2007). This book's goal is to demonstrate the developing links between cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, especially Tooby and Cosmides's (1992, 2005) influential version of evolutionary psychology. Although the volume's overall structure does little to illuminate these connections, there are some chapters that certainly succeed. Interestingly, it is often the chapters that appear least beholden to Tooby and Cosmides's stricter claims that do the best job of illustrating how evolutionary perspectives have motivated active neuroscientific research programs. Although readers may initially buy this book because of a specific chapter relevant to their research goals, we suspect they will find it contains many accessible and provocative contributions. We recommend this book to all psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists with interest in evolution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)