Evolutionary convergence as a tool in neuroscience

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Convergence (homoplasy) is a complex and important topic that spans taxa, levels of analysis, and approaches to studying the nervous system, and has been the subject of much interest in evolutionary biology. The editors urge comparative neurobiologists not simply to view convergence as "noise" that complicates analyses of homology, but to consider the heuristic value of convergence in helping us understand the diversity of structure and function in the nervous system. A close examination on instances of evolutionary convergence can provide a wealth of information concerning processing strategies used by the nervous system, as well as constraints on neural architecture. In this volume, the authors consider examples of convergence at the level of molecules, physiology, anatomy, and behavior. These papers highlight features of the nervous system that are associated repeatedly with specialized functions, suggesting mechanisms by which the nervous system processes information and produces behaviour.