Investigating neural representations: the tale of place cells.
While neuroscientists often characterize brain activity as representational, many philosophers have construed these accounts as just theorists' glosses on the mechanism. Moreover, philosophical discussions commonly focus on finished accounts of explanation, not research in progress. I adopt a differ...
| Publicado en: | Synthese Vol. 193; no. 5; pp. 1287 - 1322 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Nature
May2016
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=115054841&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 115054841 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00397857 4LI jtl: Synthese issn: 00397857 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May2016 vid: 193 iid: 5 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 115054841 10.1007/s11229-014-0480-8 ppf: 1287 ppct: 35 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 1.7MB tig: atl: Investigating neural representations: the tale of place cells. aug: au: Bechtel, William affil: Department of Philosophy, Center for Chronobiology, and Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science, University of California, La Jolla San Diego 92093-0119 USA su: Representation (Philosophy) Grid cells Neurosciences Mechanism (Philosophy) Information processing Hippocampus (Brain) sug: subj: Representation (Philosophy) Grid cells Neurosciences Mechanism (Philosophy) Information processing Hippocampus (Brain) keyword: Mechanistic explanations Place cells Representations Spatial navigation ab: While neuroscientists often characterize brain activity as representational, many philosophers have construed these accounts as just theorists' glosses on the mechanism. Moreover, philosophical discussions commonly focus on finished accounts of explanation, not research in progress. I adopt a different perspective, considering how characterizations of neural activity as representational contributes to the development of mechanistic accounts, guiding the investigations neuroscientists pursue as they work from an initial proposal to a more detailed understanding of a mechanism. I develop one illustrative example involving research on the information-processing mechanisms mammals employ in navigating their environments. This research was galvanized by the discovery in the 1970s of place cells in the hippocampus. This discovery prompted research in what the activity of these cells represents and how place representations figure in navigation. It also led to the discovery of a host of other types of neurons-grid cells, head-direction cells, boundary cells-that carry other types of spatial information and interact with place cells in the mechanism underlying spatial navigation. As I will try to make clear, the research is explicitly devoted to identifying representations and determining how they are constructed and used in an information processing mechanism. Construals of neural activity as representations are not mere glosses but are characterizations to which neuroscientists are committed in the development of their explanatory accounts. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Synthese is a copyright of Springer, 2016. All Rights Reserved. item: Synthese holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2016 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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