Neuroscience Without Representations
Building a Brain-in-a-World View
- 1st Edition - May 21, 2024
- Author: Óscar Vilarroya
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 1 9 0 6 5 - 0
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 1 9 1 7 3 - 2
In Neuroscience Without Representations, an Open Access book, Oscar Vilarroya addresses the notion of “representation” as used in expressions like “neural representation” or “… Read more
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Request a sales quoteIn Neuroscience Without Representations, an Open Access book, Oscar Vilarroya addresses the notion of “representation” as used in expressions like “neural representation” or “mental representation”. This concept is fundamental in neuroscience, yet there remains no clear, universally accepted view on what it means for a nervous system to represent something, what constitutes a neural activity as a representation, and what is being re-presented.
The book lays the foundation for a non-representational view of brain function. Building upon György Buzsáki’s critique of the theoretical framework underlying current cognitive neuroscience, Vilarroya argues that disciplines such as embodied and embedded cognition—collectively known as ‘4E cognition’—are driving a paradigm shift in our understanding of animal cognition.
Rather than grounding cognition solely in representations, the author proposes an alternative: understanding cognition as enaction—the meaningful engagement of an organism to address situational requirements. The book supports this approach through detailed analyses of recent studies.
- Presents Arguments for a Non-Representational View of the Brain.
- Addresses the Unsuitability of Neural Representation for Understanding the Brain as a Cognitive Organ.
- Explores How Non-Representational Brains Can Still Be Knowledgeable.
- Introduces the Basics of an Alternative Approach to Neural Representation.
- Cover image
- Title page
- Table of Contents
- Copyright
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter One. Some definitions
- Representation
- Neural code
- Folk psychology
- Intelligent behavior and cognition
- 4E cognition
- György Buzsáki inside-out terminology
- Part I. What is the problem?
- Chapter Two. The outside-in strategy
- Criticism of folk psychology
- The spurious correlational approach
- Criticism of outside-in perspective
- The inside-out brain
- Grounding meaning in action
- Coda
- Chapter Three. The re-presentational issue
- Do we have evidence supporting the notion of neural re-presentation?
- The problem with correlations
- Is there evidence supporting the “standing for” property?
- Coda
- Part II. What went wrong?
- Chapter Four. The flaws in the outside-in strategy
- Reifying folk psychology
- Analogies are risky
- Reverse-engineering
- Coda
- Chapter five. Overlooking the re-presentational function of language
- Formal languages
- Natural languages as formal languages
- Framework of application
- The tacit re-presentational exercise of natural languages
- The communicative properties of language
- The conflation
- Part III. The inside basics
- Chapter Six. Neural trajectories as the building blocks of brain function
- The inside-out basics on brain mechanisms
- Cell assemblies
- Brain rhythms
- The brain functional unit: self-organized cell assembly sequences
- The sequential manager
- Coda
- Chapter Seven. The anticipatory nature of brain function
- Predictive models of brain functioning
- Behavioral models
- Bayesian brains
- Are brains Bayesian machines?
- Coda
- Part IV. Viewpoints to embrace
- Chapter Eight. Adopting an evolution-minded perspective
- The complexities in characterizing the evolution of the brain
- Evolution-minded strategies: bounded functionality
- Evolutionary-minded methods: comparative models
- Evolutionary-minded methods: evolutionary models
- Evolution-minded methods: developmental approaches
- Evolution-minded methods: multimodal approaches
- Coda
- Chapter Nine. Embodying 4E cognition
- 4E cognition
- Embodied cognition
- Extended mind
- Situated cognition
- Enactivism
- Coda
- Part V. A framework proposal
- Chapter Ten. Enaction as an explanatory framework
- The inside: Neural trajectories
- The exterior: The embodied environment
- Enactions
- Enactions involve the brain and the embodied environment
- Enactions are meaningful
- Enactions are contextualized
- Coda
- Chapter Eleven. If not re-presentations, then what?
- Neural processing is operational
- How can operational roles account for acquiring, maintaining, and applying knowledge?
- Challenges: The decoupability condition
- Challenges: The abstract condition
- Coda
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
- No. of pages: 300
- Language: English
- Edition: 1
- Published: May 21, 2024
- Imprint: Elsevier
- Paperback ISBN: 9780443190650
- eBook ISBN: 9780443191732