Hostname: page-component-6587cd75c8-vfwnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-23T13:52:23.670Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Brain’s Heterogeneous Functional Landscape

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Joseph B. McCaffrey
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Multifunctionality poses significant challenges for human brain mapping. Cathy Price and Karl Friston argue that brain regions perform many functions in one sense and a single function in another. Thus, neuroscientists must revise their “cognitive ontologies” to obtain systematic mappings. Colin Klein draws a different lesson from these findings: neuroscientists should abandon systematic mappings for context-sensitive ones. I claim that neither account succeeds as a general treatment of multifunctionality. I argue that brain areas, like genes or organs, are multifunctional in different ways. I call this the “functional heterogeneity hypothesis.” I contend that different multifunctional parts require different mapping strategies.

Type
Cognitive Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 82 , Issue 5 , December 2015 , pp. 1010 - 1022
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

†

Many thanks to Edouard Machery, Peter Machamer, Mazviita Chirimuuta, David Plaut, William Bechtel, Michael Anderson, Colin Klein, Charles Rathkopf, Peter Hagoort, Mikio Akagi, Trey Boone, Aaron Novick, Elissa Aminoff, Michael Freenor, and Matteo Colombo.

References

Aminoff, E. A., Kveraga, K., and Bar, M.. 2013. “The Role of Parahippocampal Cortex in Cognition.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 17:379–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, M. L. 2010. “Neural Reuse: A Fundamental Organizational Principle of the Brain.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33:245–313.10.1017/S0140525X10000853CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, M. L. 2014. After Phrenology: Neural Reuse and the Interactive Brain. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baddely, A. 2003. “Working Memory: Looking Back and Looking Forward.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 4:829–39.Google Scholar
Bechtel, W., and Richardson, R.. 1993. Discovering Complexity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Briggman, K. L., and Kristan, W. B.. 2008. “Multifunctional Pattern-Generating Circuits.” Annual Review of Neuroscience 31:271–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bueti, D., and Walsh, V.. 2009. “The Parietal Cortex and the Representation of Time, Space, Number, and Other Magnitudes.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 364 (1525): 1831–40.Google ScholarPubMed
Craver, C. F. 2001. “Role Functions, Mechanisms, and Hierarchy.” Philosophy of Science 68:53–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, R. 1975. “Functional Analysis.” Journal of Philosophy 72:741–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dailey, F. E., and Cronan, J. E. Jr. 1986. “Acetohydroxy Acid Sythase I, a Required Enzyme for Isoleucine and Valine Biosynthesis in Escherichia coli K12 during Growth on Acetate as the Sole Carbon Source.” Journal of Bacteriology 165 (2): 453–60.10.1128/jb.165.2.453-460.1986CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dehaene, S., Cohen, L., Sigman, M., and Vinckier, F.. 2005. “The Neural Code for Written Words: A Proposal.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 9 (7): 335–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fox, S. I. 2001. Human Physiology. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Garson, J. 2011. “Selected Effects and Causal Role Functions in the Brain: The Case for an Etiological Approach to Cognitive Neuroscience.” Biology and Philosophy 26:547–65.10.1007/s10539-011-9262-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Getting, Peter A. 1989. “Emerging Principles Governing the Operation of Neural Networks.” Annual Review of Neuroscience 12:185–204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grill-Spector, K., Sayres, R., and Ress, D.. 2006. “High-Resolution Imaging Reveals Highly Selective Nonface Clusters in the Fusiform Face Area.” Nature Neuroscience 9:1177–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heiser, M., Iacoboni, M., Maeda, F., Markus, J., and Mazziotta, J. C.. 2003. “The Essential Role of Broca’s Area in Imitation.” European Journal of Neuroscience 17:1123–28.10.1046/j.1460-9568.2003.02530.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodgkin, J. 1998. “Seven Types of Pleiotropy.” International Journal of Developmental Biology 42:501–5.Google ScholarPubMed
Khila, A., Abouheif, E., and Rowe, L.. 2014. “Comparative Functional Analyses of Ultrabithorax Reveal Multiple Steps and Paths to Diversification of Legs in the Adaptive Radiation of Semi-Aquatic Insects.” Evolution 68 (8): 2159–70.Google ScholarPubMed
Klein, C. 2012. “Cognitive Ontology and Region- versus Network-Oriented Analyses.” Philosophy of Science 79 (5): 952–60.10.1086/667843CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leutgeb, S., Leutgeb, J. K., Barnes, C. A., Moser, E. I., McNaughton, B. L., and Moser, M. B.. 2005. “Independent Codes for Spatial and Episodic Memory in Hippocampal Neural Ensembles.” Science 309 (5734): 619–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liljeholm, M., and O’Doherty, J. P.. 2012. “Contributions of the Striatum to Learning, Motivation, and Performance: An Associative Account.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 16 (9): 467–75.10.1016/j.tics.2012.07.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menon, V., and Uddin, L. Q.. 2010. “Saliency, Switching, Attention and Control: A Network Model of Insula Function.” Brain Structure and Function 214 (5–6): 655–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petersen, S. E., and Fiez, J. A.. 1993. “The Processing of Single Words Studied with Positron Emission Tomography.” Annual Review of Neuroscience 16:509–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pinel, P., Piazza, M., Bihan, D. Le, and Dehaene, S.. 2004. “Distributed and Overlapping Cerebral Representations of Number, Size, and Luminance during Comparative Judgments.” Neuron 41 (6): 983–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poldrack, R. A. 2006. “Can Cognitive Processes Be Inferred from Neuroimaging Data?” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 10 (2): 59–63.10.1016/j.tics.2005.12.004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Price, C. J., and Friston, K. J.. 2005. “Functional Ontologies for Cognition: The Systematic Definition of Structure and Function.” Cognitive Neuropsychology 22 (3–4): 262–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rathkopf, C. A. 2013. “Localization and Intrinsic Function.” Philosophy of Science 80 (1): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suri, R. E., and Schultz, W.. 2001. “Temporal Difference Model Reproduces Anticipatory Neural Activity.” Neural Computation 13:841–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wager, T. D., and Barrett, L. F.. 2004. “From Affect to Control: Functional Specialization of the Insula in Motivation and Regulation.” http://www.apa.org/psycextra.Google Scholar
Wang, G., Tanifuji, M., and Tanaka, K.. 1998. “Functional Architecture in Monkey Inferotemporal Cortex Revealed by In Vivo Optical Imaging.” Neuroscience Research 32:33–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed