Stellar populations in bulges and disks and the secular evolution connection

In recent years a considerable amount of new data has become available about stellar populations in the central regions of galaxies. I will discuss what stellar populations can tell us about the formation origin of bulges, and how this relates to the formation of the central regions in giant and dwarf ellipticals. In particular I will concentrate on results from integral field spectroscopy and Spitzer imaging at 3.6, 4.5 and 8 microns.