Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2019
If we abandon the coding metaphor in favor of models of the full behavioral loop, we need a way to dissect that loop into understandable pieces. I suggest that evolutionary data provide a solution. We can subdivide behavior into parallel sensorimotor subsystems by following the phylogenetic history of how those systems differentiated and specialized during our evolution, leading to promising ways of re-interpreting neural activity within the context of its pragmatic role in mediating interaction.
Target article
Is coding a relevant metaphor for the brain?
Related commentaries (27)
A clash of Umwelts: Anthropomorphism in behavioral neuroscience
A sensorimotor alternative to coding is possible
Abandoning the code metaphor is compatible with semiotic process
Beyond metaphors and semantics: A framework for causal inference in neuroscience
Beyond Neural Coding? Lessons from Perceptual Control Theory
Codes are for messages, not for neurons
Codes, communication and cognition
Codes, functions, and causes: A critique of Brette's conceptual analysis of coding
Encodingism is not just a bad metaphor
Extrinsic and intrinsic representations
From mental representations to neural codes: A multilevel approach
From the “coding metaphor” to a theory of representation
Generative models as parsimonious descriptions of sensorimotor loops
How can we play together? Temporal inconsistencies in neural coding of music
Is coding a relevant metaphor for building AI?
Is information theory, or the assumptions that surround it, holding back neuroscience?
Is “the brain” a helpful metaphor for neuroscience?
Modest and immodest neural codes: Can there be modest codes?
Neural code: Another breach in the wall?
Neural codes – Necessary but not sufficient for understanding brain function
Not just a bad metaphor, but a little piece of a big bad metaphor
Our understanding of neural codes rests on Shannon's foundations
Plasticity of the neural coding metaphor: An unnoticed rhetoric in scientific discourse
Prediction, embodiment, and representation
Quantifying the role of neurons for behavior is a mediation question
The Bayesian brain: What is it and do humans have it?
The origin of the coding metaphor in neuroscience
Author response
Neural coding: The bureaucratic model of the brain