Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T14:23:37.682Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neural reuse and cognitive homology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2010

Vincent Bergeron
Vincent Bergeron
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Neural reuse theories suggest that, in the course of evolution, a brain structure may acquire or lose a number of cognitive uses while maintaining its cognitive workings (or low-level operations) fixed. This, in turn, suggests that homologous structures may have very different cognitive uses, while sharing the same workings. And this, essentially, is homology thinking applied to brain function.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , August 2010 , pp. 268 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dehaene, S., Bossini, S. & Giraux, P. (1993) The mental representation of parity and numerical magnitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 122:371–96.Google Scholar
Fiebach, C. J. & Schubotz, R. I. (2006) Dynamic anticipatory processing of hierarchical sequential events: A common role for Broca's area and ventral premotor cortex across domains? Cortex 42(4):499–502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hubbard, E. M., Piazza, M., Pinel, P. & Dehaene, S. (2005) Interactions between number and space in parietal cortex. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6(6):435–48.Google Scholar
Love, A. C. (2007) Functional homology and homology of function: Biological concepts and philosophical consequences. Biology and Philosophy 22:691–708.Google Scholar
Owen, R. (1843) Lectures on the comparative anatomy and physiology of the invertebrate animals, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1843. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.Google Scholar
Patel, A. D. (2003) Language, music, syntax and the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6(7):674–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petrides, M., Cadoret, G. V. & Mackey, S. (2005) Orofacial somatomotor responses in the macaque monkey homologue of Broca's area. Nature 435(7046):1235–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rauschecker, J. P. & Scott, S. K. (2009) Maps and streams in the auditory cortex: Nonhuman primates illuminate human speech processing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 12(6):718–24. doi: 10.1038/nn.2331.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schubotz, R. I. & Fiebach, C. J. (2006) Integrative models of Broca's area and the ventral premotor cortex. Cortex 42:461–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar