Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T04:42:08.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Localization and Intrinsic Function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Charles A. Rathkopf
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article describes one style of functional analysis commonly used in the neurosciences called “task-bound functional analysis.” The concept of function invoked by this style of analysis is distinctive in virtue of the dependence relations it bears to transient environmental properties. It is argued that task-bound functional analysis cannot explain the presence of structural properties in nervous systems. An alternative concept of neural function is introduced that draws on the theoretical neuroscience literature, and an argument is given to show that this alternative concept may help to overcome the explanatory limitations of task-bound functional analysis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 80 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 1 - 21
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.)

Footnotes

†

Thanks to Paul Humphreys, Colin Klein, Michael Anderson, and Matt Duncan for providing very helpful comments on an earlier draft.

References

Achinstein, Peter. 1985. The Nature of Explanation. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Andersen, Per, Morris, Richard, Amaral, David, Bliss, Tim, and O’Keefe, John, eds. 2006. The Hippocampus Book. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Michael L. 2007. “Massive Redeployment, Exaptation, and the Functional Integration of Cognitive Operations.” Synthese 159 (3): 329–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Michael L. 2010. “Neural Reuse: A Fundamental Organizational Principle of the Brain.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33 (4): 245–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bokulich, Alisa. 2011. “How Scientific Models Can Explain.” Synthese 180 (1): 33–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cabeza, Roberto, and Kingstone, Alan, eds. 2001. Handbook of Functional Neuroimaging of Cognition. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cabeza, Roberto, and Nyberg, Lars. 2000. “Imaging Cognition II: An Empirical Review of 275 PET and fMRI Studies.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 12 (1): 1–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craver, Carl F. 2006. “When Mechanistic Models Explain.” Synthese 153 (3): 355–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craver, Carl F. 2007. Explaining the Brain: Mechanisms and the Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, Robert C. 1975. “Functional Analysis.” Journal of Philosophy 72:741–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doya, Kenji, Ishii, Shin, Pouget, Alexandre, and Rao, Rajesh P. N., eds. 2006. Bayesian Brain: Probabilistic Approaches to Neural Coding. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunnett, Stephen B., Fuller, Anna, Rosser, Anne E., and Brooks, Simon P.. 2012. “A Novel Extended Sequence Learning Task (ESLeT) for Rodents: Validation and the Effects of Amphetamine, Scopolamine and Striatal Lesions.” Brain Research Bulletin 88 (2–3): 237–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eliasmith, Chris. 2000. “How Neurons Mean: A Neurocomputational Theory of Representational Content.” PhD diss., Washington University.Google Scholar
Fodor, Jerry A. 1974. “Special Sciences.” Synthese 28 (2): 97–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortin, Norbert J., Agster, Kara L., and Eichenbaum, Howard B.. 2002. “Critical Role of the Hippocampus in Memory for Sequences of Events.” Nature Neuroscience 5 (5): 458–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Friston, Karl. 2010. “The Free-Energy Principle: A Unified Brain Theory?” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11 (2): 127–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilbert, Paul E., and Kesner, Raymond P.. 2003. “Localization of Function within the Dorsal Hippocampus: The Role of the CA3 Subregion in Paired-Associate Learning.” Behavioral Neuroscience 117 (6): 1385–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grodzinsky, Yosef, and Santi, Andrea. 2008. “The Battle for Broca’s Region.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 12 (12): 474–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hanson, Stephen José, and Bunzl, Martin, eds. 2010. Foundational Issues in Human Brain Mapping. A Bradford Book. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hempel, Carl G., and Oppenheim, Paul. 1948. “Studies in the Logic of Explanation.” Philosophy of Science 15 (2): 135–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huxley, A. F., and Stämpfli, R.. 1949. “Evidence for Saltatory Conduction in Peripheral Myelinated Nerve Fibres.” Journal of Physiology 108 (3): 315–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kitcher, Philip. 1981. “Explanatory Unification.” Philosophy of Science 48 (4): 507–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, Colin. 2012. “Cognitive Ontology and Region- versus Network-Oriented Analysis.” Philosophy of Science 79 (Proceedings): 952–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, W. B., Hocking, A. B., and Wu, X.. 2005. “Interpreting Hippocampal Function as Recoding and Forecasting.” Neural Networks 18 (9): 1242–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lisman, J., and Redish, A. D.. 2009. “Prediction, Sequences and the Hippocampus.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 364 (1521): 1193–1201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morris, Richard. 2006. “Theories of Hippocampal Function.” In The Hippocampus Book, ed. Andersen, Per, Amaral, David, Bliss, Tim, and O’Keefe, John. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
O’Keefe, J. 1999. “Do Hippocampal Pyramidal Cells Signal Non-spatial as Well as Spatial Information?” Hippocampus 9 (4): 352–64.Google ScholarPubMed
Penner-Wilger, M., and Anderson, Michael L.. 2008. “An Alternative View of the Relation between Finger Gnosis and Math Ability: Redeployment of Finger Representations for the Representation of Number.” In Proceedings of the 30th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.Google Scholar
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
Piccinini, Gualtiero, and Craver, Carl. 2011. “Integrating Psychology and Neuroscience: Functional Analyses as Mechanism Sketches.” Synthese 183 (3): 283–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinker, Steven. 2009. How the Mind Works. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
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., Kittur, Aniket, Kalar, Donald, Miller, Eric, Seppa, Christian, Gil, Yolanda, Parker, D. Stott, Sabb, Fred W., and Bilder, Robert M.. 2011. “The Cognitive Atlas: Toward a Knowledge Foundation for Cognitive Neuroscience.” Frontiers in Neuroinformatics 5 (September 6). doi:10.3389/fninf.2011.00017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raichle, Marcus E. 2010. “Two Views of Brain Function.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 14 (4): 180–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raichle, Marcus E., and Mintun, M. A.. 2006. “Brain Work and Brain Imaging.” Annual Review Neuroscience 29:449–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosen, J. B., and Donley, M. P.. 2006. “Animal Studies of Amygdala Function in Fear and Uncertainty: Relevance to Human Research.” Biological Psychology 73 (1): 49–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmajuk, Nestor A. 1984. “Psychological Theories of Hippocampal Function.” Physiological Psychology 12 (3): 166–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, Jacqueline A. 2009. “The Multiplicity of Experimental Protocols: A Challenge to Reductionist and Non-reductionist Models of the Unity of Neuroscience.” Synthese 167 (3): 511–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, Jacqueline A. 2010. “A Role for Representation in Cognitive Neurobiology.” Philosophy of Science 77 (5): 875–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takahashi, L. K. 1995. “Glucocorticoids, the Hippocampus, and Behavioral Inhibition in the Preweanling Rat.” Journal of Neuroscience 15 (9): 6023–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Fraassen, Bas. C. 1980. The Scientific Image. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wager, Tor D., Lindquist, M., and Kaplan, L.. 2007. “Meta-analysis of Functional Neuroimaging Data: Current and Future Directions.” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2 (2): 150.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wager, Tor D., and Smith, Edward E.. 2003. “Neuroimaging Studies of Working Memory: A Meta-analysis.” Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience 3 (4): 255–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolf, George. 2001. “The Discovery of the Visual Function of Vitamin A.” Journal of Nutrition 131 (6): 1647–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woodward, James. 2010. “Causation in Biology: Stability, Specificity, and the Choice of Levels of Explanation.” Biology Philosophy 25 (3): 287–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, L. 1973. “Functions.” Philosophical Review 82 (2): 139–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar