Mate choice as social cognition: predicting female behavioral and neural plasticity as a function of alternative male reproductive tactics

•Cognition in mate choice should vary with complexity of mating landscape.•Molecular evidence for mate choice cognition (synaptic plasticity gene expression).•Females engage different decision-making brain regions as male phenotype varies.

Female mate preference behavior has traditionally been viewed as a sensory response, yet recent research supports the involvement of cognitive processes. Here we argue that cognition is likely to arise as a critical component of female mate choice in mating systems with alternative male reproductive phenotypes. In alternative male mating systems, selection should favor female recognition of, and adaptive response toward, different male behavioral strategies: avoid phenotypes incurring fitness costs and affiliate with phenotypes associated with fitness benefits. Here we review the behavioral, molecular and neural evidence supporting cognitive processes in female mate choice behavior across animals, and make predictions as to how the relative contribution of social cognition in mate choice decisions is likely to vary by mating system.