Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T15:29:30.215Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cognitive Ontology and Region- versus Network-Oriented Analyses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Colin Klein
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The interpretation of functional imaging experiments is complicated by the pluripotency of brain regions. As there is a many-to-one mapping between cognitive functions and their neural substrates, region-based analyses of imaging data provide only weak support for cognitive theories. Price and Friston argue that we need a ‘cognitive ontology’ that abstractly categorizes the function of regions. I argue that abstract characterizations are unlikely to be cognitively interesting. I argue instead that we should attribute functions to regions in a context-sensitive manner. I review recent meta-analyses that approach fMRI data in this light and argue that they have revisionary potential.

Type
Psychology and Neuroscience
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 79 , Issue 5 , December 2012 , pp. 952 - 960
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.)

References

Abutalebi, Jubin. 2008. “Neural Aspects of Second Language Representation and Language Control.” Acta Psychologica 128 (3): 466–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buckner, Randy L., and Carroll, Daniel C.. 2007. “Self-Projection and the Brain.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11 (2): 49–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, Laurent, Dehaene, Stanislas, Naccache, Lionel, Lehéricy, Stéphane, Dehaene-Lambertz, Ghislaine, Hénaff, Marie-Anne, and Michel, François. 2000. “The Visual Word Form Area: Spatial and Temporal Characterization of an Initial Stage of Reading in Normal Subjects and Posterior Split-Brain Patients.” Brain 123 (2): 291.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, David W. 2003. “Neural Basis of Lexicon and Grammar in L2 Acquisition.” In The Lexicon-Syntax Interface in Second Language Acquisition, ed. Hout, Roeland van, Hulk, Aafke, Kuiken, Folkert, and Towell, Richard J., 197–218. Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, David W., Crinion, Jenny, and Price, Cathy J.. 2006. “Convergence, Degeneracy and Control.” Language Learning 56 (Suppl.): 99–125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, Joshua D., Nystrom, Leigh E., Engell, Andrew D., Darley, John M., and Cohen, Jonathan D.. 2004. “The Neural Bases of Cognitive Conflict and Control in Moral Judgment.” Neuron 44 (2): 389–400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haxby, James V., Gobbini, M. Ida, Furey, Maura L., Ishai, Alumit, Schouten, Jennifer L., and Pietrini, Pietro. 2001. “Distributed and Overlapping Representations of Faces and Objects in Ventral Temporal Cortex.” Science 293 (5539): 2425–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ishai, Alumit, Ungerleider, L. G., Martin, A., Schouten, J. L., and Haxby, J. V.. 1999. “Distributed Representation of Objects in the Human Ventral Visual Pathway.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 96 (16): 9379–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kanwisher, Nancy. 2000. “Domain Specificity in Face Perception.” Nature Neuroscience 3 (8): 759–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kanwisher, Nancy, McDermott, Josh, and Chun, Marvin M.. 1997. “The Fusiform Face Area: A Module in Human Extrastriate Cortex Specialized for Face Perception.” Journal of Neuroscience 17 (11): 4302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein, Colin. 2011. “The Dual Track Theory of Moral Decision-Making: A Critique of the Neuroimaging Evidence.” Neuroethics 4:143–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenartowicz, Agatha, Kalar, Donald J., Congdon, Eliza, and Poldrack, Russell A.. 2010. “Towards an Ontology of Cognitive Control.” Topics in Cognitive Science 2 (4): 678–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pessoa, Luiz. 2008. “On the Relationship between Emotion and Cognition.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 9 (2): 148–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poldrack, Russell A. 2006. “Can Cognitive Processes Be Inferred from Neuroimaging Data?” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 10 (2): 59–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poldrack, Russell A., Halchenko, Yaroslav, and Hanson, Stephen J.. 2009. “Decoding the Large-Scale Structure of Brain Function by Classifying Mental States across Individuals.” Psychological Science 20 (11): 1364–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Price, Cathy, and Friston, Karl. 2005. “Functional Ontologies for Cognition: The Systematic Definition of Structure and Function.” Cognitive Neuropsychology 22 (3): 262–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramsey, Joseph D., Hanson, S. J., Hanson, C., Halchenko, Y. O., Poldrack, R. A., and Glymour, C.. 2009. “Six Problems for Causal Inference from fMRI.’’ Neuroimage 49:1545–58.Google Scholar