Terra Cognita: From Functional Neuroimaging to the Map of the Mind

Author: Lloyd D.1

Source: Brain and Mind, Volume 1, Number 1, April 2000 , pp. 93-116(24)

Publisher: Springer

Key:
Free Content - Free Content
New Content - New Content
Subscribed Content - Subscribed Content
Free Trial Content - Free Trial Content

Abstract:

For more than a century the paradigm inspiring cognitive neuroscience has been modular and localist. Contemporary research in functional brain imaging generally relies on methods favorable to localizing particular functions in one or more specific brain regions. Meanwhile, connectionist cognitive scientists have celebrated the computational powers of distributed processing, and pioneered methods for interpreting distributed representations. This paper takes a connectionist approach to functional neuroimaging. A tabulation of 35 PET (positron emission tomography) experiments strongly indicates distributed function for at least the `medium sized' anatomical units, the cortical Brodmann areas. More important, when these PET experiments were interpreted as distributed representations, multidimensional scaling revealed a `brain activation space' with a salient structure organized primarily by the sensory modality of the stimulus, and secondarily by the type of motor response. These results suggest that current analytical techniques in functional neuroimaging should be augmented by distributed processing analyses, and that these analyses may lead to many discoveries about the structure of `inner space.'

Keywords: parallel distributed processing; functional brain imaging; multidimensional scaling

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Department of Philosophy and Program in Neuroscience, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106, U.S.A., e-mail:dan.lloyd@trincoll.edu

The full text electronic article is available for purchase. You will be able to download the full text electronic article after payment.

$47.00 plus tax      Refund Policy

 

OR

Back to top

Key:
Free Content - Free Content
New Content - New Content
Subscribed Content - Subscribed Content
Free Trial Content - Free Trial Content
Share this item with others: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Page Help Click here for Page Help
Shopping cart
Tools
Sign in






Need to register?
Sign up here
Text size: A | A | A | A