The Brain's Heterogeneous Functional Landscape.

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 Kle...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Philosophy of Science Vol. 82; no. 5; pp. 1010 - 1023
Autor principal: McCaffrey, Joseph B.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Cambridge University Press Dec2015
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario: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.